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Pacific Oceania, Hong Kong deadlocked at 1-1
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Posted on Feb 11 2006
Pacific Oceania’s West Nott couldn’t have waited for a more opportune time to win his first Davis Cup match, as his straight sets victory over Hong Kong’s No. 1 Hui-Tung Yu Friday leveled the Asia/Oceania Group II tie between the two teams.
The Marshall Islands netter’s performance made up for a disappointing loss by the islanders’ No. 1 player Michael Leong, who earlier bowed to the former Crown Colony’s No. 2 player Wing-Luen “Wayne” Wong, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the first singles match.
Nott overcame an early break in the first set to force a first set tiebreaker against Yu. The breaker became a real roller coaster ride, as the ex-Georgia Tech standout overcame a 2-5 deficit before the lead changed hands several times.
Nott finally burst Yu’s balloon when he won the tiebreak on his fifth set point, 12-10. The 23-year-old then kept his foot on the gas pedal in the second as he came through with a 6-4 victory to move a set closer to wrapping up the match.
In the third set, it looked as though Yu had found Nott’s measure as he went ahead 3-0, but the islander battled back to take the next four games and held on for a 7-6 (12-10), 6-4, 6-4 victory.
Pacific Oceania team captain Jeff Race said after the match that Nott was elated to have notched his first Davis Cup win and level the tie for his team.
Yesterday saw Pacific Oceania’s experienced team of Juan Sebastian Langton of Western Samoa and Brett Baudinet of Cook Islands take on Martin Sayer and Michael Lai of Hong Kong. Results of the match were still not available as of press time.
According to Race, although the islanders sported a 10-3 record in Group III play, they dropped their first two Group II encounters in 2005 and are looking for their breakthrough match.
As predicted, the doubles in this contest is likely to be the key match to lead one team to victory and semi-final opportunity this April as well as a guaranteed Group II berth in 2007. The winner of yesterday’s doubles need only win one of today’s reverse singles to clinch the tie.
Leong and Nott would exchange opening day opponents today with Leong taking on Yu and Nott squaring off against Wong.
