PJ TIERRO'S SENSATIONAL COMEBACK ANCHORS RP'S 2-0 LEAD IN DAVIS CUP TIE VS SRI LANKA
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 07 Mar 2015
The Philippines No.1 PJ Tiero's sensational comeback from two sets down to avenge his grueling five set loss to Harshana
Godamanna in the Asia Oceania Group II Davis Cup tie against Sri Lanka in Colombo last year, anchored the Philippines 2-0
lead on the opening day at the shell court of the Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig on Friday.
Tierro appeared a beaten man after dropping the first two sets to Godamanna whose ground strokes were almost impeccable, 7-5, 6-3 but when the biggest supporter of Philippine tennis Jean Henri Lhuiller arrived, Tiero's game suddenly blossomed as he showed none of the nervousness of the first two sets to rattle off the next three sets in style, 6-4/6-0, 6-3 to wrap up the opening singles and set the stage for a dominating performance by Gonzales who proved far too good for 18 year old Sharmal Dissanayke winning in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 to give the hosts a real chance to score its ninth straight Davis Cup triumph over the hapless Sri Lankans.
Sri Lanka's team captain Rohan De Silva, an outstanding Davis Cup player in his time told the New Standard/Viva Sports that
Godamanna who was suffering from "an injury to his elbow" and may not suit up for the doubles against world-ranked Treat Huey and outstanding youngster Nino Alcantara who is back from a stint at Pepperdine University and whose game has surely improved.
De Silva said Godamanna "has not been playing much and only started playing last week after four months of no tennis. He played very well to go up by two sets to love and then suddenly let it go a bit and Tierro of course came back and got into the match very well and continued and Harshana didn't have a chance to get back into it. Harshana relaxed a little bit and Tierro took advantage."
He said Godamanna "may have been worried if he could go five sets" since he hasn't played much tennis recently.
De Silva thought that despite the straight sets loss by Dissanayake he "played a very good game in only h is second time playing in a tie for Sri Lanka. He is getting better and better but he needs a lot of match practice playing abroad beginning this year."
He said the Lankans will have a team meeting on Saturday morning to decide on whether to play Godamanna in the doubles
because of his injury or to go with someone else.
The lefty Godamanna who is a five-time national champion and holds the record for most nnumber of Davis Cup wins for
Sri Lanka and has a career high ranking of 811 overcame five double faults in the opening set to Tierro's one and raced to a 4-1 lead before PJ broke for the first time to tie the count at 5-5. But after Godamanna h eld serve to g o up 6-5 Tierro committed three straight errors enabling the Sri Lankan to take the first set 7-5.
Godamanna led 3-2 in the second set after overcoming 5 deuces and then broke Tierro to move up 4-2 and when a return by PJ
sailed out the Lankan sealed the second set 6-3.
Both players held serve in the third set but with the score at 5-4 in his favor Tierro broke G odamanna who was called for a foot-fault to claw back to take the third set 6-4.
Tierro's game was in full flow in the fourth set with his first serve creating havoc and his cross-court shots ripping past a tiring Godamana with the Filipino setting up a fifth and deciding set with a 6-0 win in the fourth.
His confidence at a new high and the crowd behind him, Tierro hammered home an ace to take a 3-0 lead in the fifth set breaking
Godamanna whose service and fluent ground strokes appeared to suddenly desert him. Games went with serve before another ace
by Tierro and after Godamanna struggled to stay alive with a third deuce he faltered and hit a forehand into the net to give Tierro the final set 6-3 to seal an incredible comeback.
Tierro said he initially felt the pressure of aching to do well befote the hometown crowd as well as to avenge his loss in five gruelling sets to G odamanna in last year's tie and also recalled that at the team dinner hosted by the Valle Verde Country Club board we told him "if you lose don't come back and that's why he played to win."
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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