Leong and Langton win ‘dead’ singles

Pacific Oceania regained a measure of respect Sunday when they won the “dead” singles, a day after Oman relegated the Islanders to Group III in the 2009 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone competition held at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat.

Michael Leong of Solomon Islands and Juan Sebastian Langton of Samoa beat Mohammad Al Nabhani and Sulaiman Al Rawahi, respectively, in the third day’s reverse singles to allow the Islanders to bow out of Group II with a more forgiving 2-3 defeat at the hands of the Omanis.

Leong played the first reverse singles against the Middle East country’s star of the first two days, Mohammad Al Nabhani, and lost a tough first set in a tiebreaker before getting on top of the Omani’s big forehands to clinch the next two sets for the match, 6-7 (3-6), 6-3, 6-3.

Langton, meanwhile, ran roughshod over Oman’s No. 3 player Sulaiman Al Rawahi, 6-1, 6-4, in the final match of Pacific Oceania’s and Oman’s 2008 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group II relegation tie.

Pacific Oceania was relegated to Group III after losing the opening singles in Day 1 and Day 2 doubles matches against Oman last Friday and Saturday.

The speedy Leong met his match against Khalid Al Nabhani as the ace of the Pacific Oceania team was overpowered in straight sets, 1-6, 6-7 (3-6), 4-6.

Langton, meanwhile, fared much better against Mohammed Al Nabhani, but lost in a tight one nonetheless, 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 2-6.

Pacific Oceania then lost the vital doubles match in five hard-fought sets Saturday when Brett Baudinet of Cook Islands and Cyril Jacobe of Vanuatu took on the Al Nabhani brothers, who rallied to win the match and the tie, 7-6 (7-3) 5-7, 3-6 7-6(7-3), 6-4.

Pacific Oceania was skippered by Cyrille Mainguy, while Majid Abdullah Mandhari was team captain for the victorious Oman side.

Oman’s win gave it a 1-1 win-loss record against Pacific Oceania. In their first head-to-head match-up, Pacific Oceania beat Oman, 2-1, in Dubai in their Group A Round Robin Asia/Oceania Zone Group III tie way back in 1996.

Pacific Oceania thus goes back competing in Group III, something it has not done since the CNMI’s very own Jeff Race guided the Islanders to victories over Syria (3-0), Bahrain (3-0), and host Vietnam (2-1) in May 2004 to take one of two berths to Group II.