Race: Mission accomplished

Team captain Jeff Race is pretty happy that Pacific Oceania was able to remain in Group II of Davis Cup Asia/Oceania after it defeated Malaysia in their relegation tie last weekend in Noumea, New Caledonia.

In a phone interview yesterday, Race admitted feeling a sense of accomplishment after steering the islanders to a 3-2 victory against the Southeast Asian nation on the hardcourts at Ligue Caledonienne de Tennis Stadium, headquarters of Ligue Caledonienne de tennis.

“Our main goal was to remain in Group II and we we’re able to do that. We’re pretty happy about that accomplishment because we didn’t want to go down to Group III,” he said.

The many time CNMI national coach and 2001 NMASA Coach of the Year said he was also thrilled to finally have Pacific Oceania take down Malaysia after losing the previous four head-to-head ties against the former British colony.

“The Malaysian team beat us four times before and we had never won against them. They actually have the same No. 1 player, Yew-Ming Si, when they beat us in 2003, but this time he was only able to beat our No. 3 player—we had two players that are better than him now and that shows that our team really has improved a lot,” he said.

Race said Si’s win over West Nott of Marshall Islands can also be considered lucky after the former Georgia Tech standout went down with cramps and wasn’t able to finish their game, which he was dominating prior to the injury.

“We might’ve won a lot easier West was leading but he cramped up and couldn’t play and still couldn’t play Sunday [for the reverse singles]. I think he got in there Wednesday and got in late so he didn’t have enough time to acclimate himself with the weather. It was really hot, really humid, a little hotter than here,” he said.

The Pacific Oceania team captain now hopes that with the team nailing its relegation tie against Malaysia and maintaining its place in Group II—after breaking out from Group III last year—all doubts about the islanders’ abilities would finally be put to rest.

“Some people probably thought it was a fluke when we stayed in Group II last year. Hopefully, by maintaining our place in Group II we have finally proven that this is where we belong at this time with these players. We’re really looking forward to playing in Group II again next year,” he said.

Trailing 1-2 coming into the third and final day of the tie, Pacific Oceania clinched the victory by sweeping the reverse singles.

Michael Leong, of Solomon Islands, dominated Si, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1, in the first game and Juan Langton, of Western Samoa, took out a fatigued Selvam Veerasingam, 6-2, 6-1, 4-5 (retired). Langton subbed for Nott, who didn’t recovered fully from the cramps that plagued him three days before.

In the doubles Saturday, Si and Veerasingam put Malaysia ahead 2-1 when they downed Brett Baudinet, of Cook Islands, and Langton, 6-4, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (3).

On Friday, the teams split the opening singles. Si beat Nott 2-6, 1-6, 1-2 (retired) and Leong defeated Veerasingam 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

The two other players that were on the roster for Malaysia but didn’t see action were Razvan Rawi and Shi-Hao “Jonathan” Yip. Serving as team captain was Muliyadi Bin Jamal.

Malaysia previously defeated Pacific Oceania, 3-0, in Malaysia in 2003; 3-0 again in 1999 in Bangladesh; 2-1 in 1997 in Qatar; and 2-1 in 1996 in the United Arab Emirates.