Nott succumbs to cramps, Pacific Oceania trails 1-0

Pacific Oceania caught a bad break yesterday when West Nott went down with severe cramps to give Malaysia a 1-0 lead in the two nations’ Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group II second round tie held at the headquarters of Ligue Caledonienne de tennis in Noumea, New Caledonia.

Nott, of Marshall Islands, was in full control of his match against the Southeast Asian nation’s top player Yew-Ming Si when he was overcome by severe cramps and was unable to continue.

The former Georgia Tech standout was leading 6-2, 6-1, 2-1 at the time of the injury.

Michael Leong, of Solomon Islands, was playing Malaysia’s second-ranked player Selvam Veerasingam in the second singles match of the day but results were still unavailable as of press time.

According to team captain Jeff Race of the CNMI Nott began the first rubber in the best possible of circumstances—with an ace. At 2-2 in the first set he saved four break points before holding serve and then followed up by breaking the Malaysian’s serve twice in a row to take the set 6-2.

He continued his strong rallying game into the second set allowing Si to hold serve only once as he took the set 6-1.

Nott then broke serve in the opening game of the third set and then held for 2-0 before taking a medical timeout for a slight groin strain.

Si then held serve for 1-2 and in the following game disaster struck as Nott came down with severe cramps and was unable to continue.

The islanders’ most experience doubles pair of Brett Baudinet, of Cook Islands, and Juan Langton, of Western Samoa, has been named for the doubles competition today.

They will oppose Malaysia’s two singles players Si and Veerasingam. Doubles pairs can be changed up to one hour before play commences at 2pm today local time.

The two other players suiting up for Malaysia are Razvan Rawi and Shi-Hao “Jonathan” Yip. Serving as team captain is Muliyadi Bin Jamal.

Coming into the tie, Pacific Oceania is ranked 65th in the latest ATP Davis Cup rankings, while Malaysia is 15 rungs down at No. 80. Both teams are coming off losses in their 2006 openers with the islanders getting trounced by powerhouse Hong Kong 1-4, and Malaysia losing to Indonesia, 0-5.

Pacific Oceania sports a 23-26 win-loss record since joining the Davis Cup in 1995, while Malaysia has a 29-51 mark and played its first Davis Cup in 1957.

Malaysia had the edge in head-to-head encounter though, as the Southeast Asian nation has won the past four ties against the islanders. It 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.