Sunday, Feb 08, 2004
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004 |
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Tennis
INVERCARGILL, FEB. 7. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi beat Mark Neilsen and Matt Prentice 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Saturday to give India a 2-1 lead in its Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group 1 match with New Zealand. The former world No. 1 doubles pair outclassed New Zealand's untried combination and continued the trend of the match in which all matches have been won in straight sets. New Zealand's Simon Rea beat Harsh Mankad in the opening singles Friday while Paes beat Nielsen to leave the match balanced after the first day. The slick, almost instinctive, combination between Paes and Bhupathi was too much for Nielsen and Prentice, who was making his Cup doubles debut. Bhupati is ranked fourth in the world in doubles and Paes 13th. Nielsen had a chance to force the match to a fourth set when he served at 4-3 in the tiebreaker but he dropped both points to allow the Indians a 5-4 advantage. Paes decided the set with two great points, including a crisp, unplayable volley at match point. The reverse singles will be played Sunday. The winner of the match will play either Japan or Indonesia in the second round in April.
Japan takes lead
Meanwhile in Jakarta, Thomas Shimada and Takahiro Terachi won the doubles to give Japan a 2-1 lead over Indonesia. The Japanese scored a straight sets win over Hendri-Susilo Pramono and Suwandi Suwandi 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-1 in a gruelling battle that lasted two hours at Gelora Bung Karno Tennis Stadium. Japan has so far won six of the two countries' seven Davis Cup encounters. The only Indonesian victory was in 1982 at the same venue. Both Indonesia and Japan made it to the third round of the playoffs after defeating South Korea and Pakistan last April. In other matches in the group, Uzbekistan has taken an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Taiwan at Taipei and Thailand has sewn up its match against Pakistan after winning the doubles in Bangkok.
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