DOUBLES VICTORY CLINCHES DAVIS CUP TIE FOR THE PHILIPPINES
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 08 Mar 2015
The smashing doubles victory of world-ranked Treat Huey and Pepperdine University standout Casey Francis ?Nino? Alcantara before an enthusiastic crowd at the Valle Verde Country Club Court in Pasig on Saturday helped clinch the Asia Oceania Group II Davis Cup tie against Sri Lanka with an insurmountable 3-0 lead.
It was the ninth straight time that the Philippines had defeated the hapless Sri Lankans whose best chance of staying in the tie was lost when Harshana Godamanna took a two-set lead over PJ Tierro in the opening singles match but faded as Tierro clawed back with a stunning performance to win a five set marathon and avenge his loss to Godamanna in another grueling five set encounter in Colombo last year.
The score was 5-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 and 6-3.
In the second singles Ruben Gonzales overwhelmed 18 year old Shrimal Dissanayake in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 to give the Philippines a flying start.
In the deciding doubles match 29 year old doubles specialist Huey who is currently ranked No. 60 in the world in doubles and the 23 year old rising star Alcantara, the first Filipino to win a grandslam title when he partnered Hsieh Cheng ?Peng of Chinese-Taipei to win the 2009 Australian Open Boy?s doubles in straight sets over Mikhail Biryukov and Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-4, 6-2 in the finals, proved far too good for the Sri Lankan pair of Dissanayake and Dinesh Thangarajah who replaced the injured Godamanna who, besides having an elbow injury lacked match practice.
The Filipinos were given an early scare when the young Sri Lankans stunned the fancied duo of Huey and Alcantara to take the first set 6-3 in 43 minutes after breaking Alcantara in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead.
The crowd began to get concerned when the a vicious return from Dissanayake helped break Huey to give the Sri Lankans an early lead which they padded to 2-0 when Thangarajah held serve.
Huey and Alcantara quickly buckled down to business and broke Dissanayake in the fourth and eighth games to even the count by taking the second set 6-3.
Five double faults by Dissanayake in the third set as against one by Huey while in the third set five double faults including four by Dissanayake enabled the Filipinos to coast to a 6-2 victory.
Three double faults in succession by Dissanayake whose game was unraveling and breaks of THangarajash? serve in the opening game and Dissanayake?s in the seventh pushed the Philippines to a 5-2 lead and the brink of wrapping up the tie but the Lankan youngsters fought back valiantly to win two games in a row to edge to within 4-5 before Huey wrapped up the match with a sizzling ace.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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