Pacific Oceania goes down 2-1 against Malaysia

Pacific Oceania trails Malaysia 2-1 after dropping the doubles going into the final day of their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group II second round tie to be held at the headquarters of Ligue Caledonienne de tennis in Noumea, New Caledonia.

The islanders’ most experienced doubles team of Brett Baudinet and Juan Sebastian Langton went down in a three-and-a half hour, four-set marathon yesterday against the Southeast East Asian nation’s Selvam Veerasingam and Yew-Ming Si to put Pacific Oceania a loss away from losing the tie.

All in all, it was a tightly fought match that could have gone either way.

Baudinet, of Cook Islands, dropped serve in the fifth game of the first set after saving six break points and making a mess of two easy smashes on game points. Games then went with serve and Malaysia closed out the first set 6-4.

Pacific Oceania started the second set strong, breaking serve in the sixth game to go up 4-2 but then gave the break back when Baudinet lost serve.

Games then went with serve until the tiebreaker. Malaysia went up a mini-break for a 6-4 lead. The Pacific Oceania pair then got back to 6-all before Baudinet hit a comfortable backhand volley long. A big serve from gave the breaker to Malaysia 8-6 for a handy two set lead.

The third set started well for Pacific Oceania as they went up 3-1. Baudinet and Langton, who is from Western Samoa, broke Si’s serve in the ninth game to take the set 6-3 and keep Pacific Oceania in the match.

In the fourth set there were no breaks of serve but Baudinet and Langton worked hard to get a set point at 6-5 on the Malaysians’ serve but were able to take the opportunity. Pacific Oceania thought they had grabbed the initiative in the tiebreaker when they went a mini-break ahead at 2-1.

But Si and Veerasingam responded magnificently reeling off five points in a row and eventually took the tiebreaker 7-3 to clinch the match in four sets.

The final score was 6-4, 7-6 (6), 3-6 7-6 (3) in favor of Malaysia reflected the closeness of the match.

On Friday, Michael Leong, of Solomon Islands, tied the count at 1-1 after he clinched the second rubber for the home team when he disposed of Veerasingam in three straight sets.

Earlier, West Nott, of Marshall Islands, was forced to retire with cramps after leading Si 6-2, 6-1, 2-1 in the opening rubber gifting the match to Malaysia when they looked right out of it.

After that disappointment, Leong took the court against Veerasingam for the second rubber and was quickly into his stride breaking serve and racing to a 3-0 lead.

Veerasingam then got his huge serve and forehand going and held serve for the rest of the set but Leong took it out 6-3.

The spectacular shots continued from the Malaysian in the second set but Leong’s retrieving skills kept him in the set and eventually after a long game, he broke Veerasingam’s serve to clinch the second set 6-3.

The third set was all Pacific Oceania as the Malaysian began to tire and Leong took full advantage taking the third set 6-1 to even the tie at 1-1.

Pacific Oceania team captain Jeff Race is expected to field Nott and Leong for the reverse singles today with the islanders needing to win both matches to retain their place in Group II. However, it is unknown whether Nott has recovered sufficiently from his injury Friday. If he can’t give it a go, Race may have to call on either Langton or Baudinet to play in the other singles match. Veerasingam and Si will likely see action again for Malaysia.

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.

History is definitely on the side of Malaysia, 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.