PH grabs 2-0 lead vs Syria in Davis Cup

The Philippines swept its opening singles matches yesterday to mount a formidable 2-0 lead against Syria in their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group 2 match at the Plantation Bay Resort and Spa in Lapu-Lapu City.

Johnny Arcilla first gave the Philippines a morale-boosting win after beating 926th ranked Issam Haitham Taweel, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2

The country’s No. 1 netter bucked a second set collapse to win in four sets in a match played under overcast skies and halted briefly by rain in the first set.

GONZALES GIVES PH 2-0 LEAD

The later last night, Ruben Gonzales survived a second set tiebreak to sweep Marc Abdelnour, 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-2.

Today, the Philippines will try to wrap up the tie with a victory in the doubles event with Treat Conrad Huey and Vicente “Elbert” Anasta going up against tne Syrian pair of Abdelnour and Majdi Salim.

If the country loses today’s doubles, it will still have a chance to win the tie by winning one of Sunday’s reverse singles.

Arcilla’s victory marked the first time since Lapu-Lapu City’s hosting of the Davis Cup that the Philippines was able to win the first singles match, and hopes are high that the country will finally end its losing slide at the shell-clay courts of Plantation.

“It was very difficult,” said Arcilla after the game. “But it was also a very nice feeling. I really tried my best to win because we still haven’t won here at Plantation Bay,” Arcilla added when asked how he felt about winning the first singles match, something the Philippines has not achieved in its two previDavis Cup matches here against Japan and Chinese Taipeh.

After taking the first set, 6-4, Arcilla looked headed to an easy win after leading, 4-1 in the second. But he fell into a maze of errors as Taweel broke him in the sixth and eighth games to level at 4-all. Both players held their serve for 5-5 before the Syrian broke Arcilla’s serve in the 11th game and served out the second set.

SECOND WIND

But just when everything seemed lost for the country’s topranked netter, Arcilla opened the third set by breaking Taweel’s serve as the tiring Syrian struggled to find his range. Arcilla would concede only one game to his Syrian rival in the third set to grab a two-sets-to-one lead.

Arcilla continued his impressive comeback in the fourth when he broke again in the eighth game to secure the country’s morale-boosting victory.

Asked why he lost the second set when he was already leading, 4-1, Arcilla said he relaxed a bit and became over confident.

The hard-hitting Syrian grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first set when he broke Arcilla in the second game. But Arcilla broke back and held his serve to level the match at 2-all.

The brief rain delay seemed to have energized Arcilla who, after leveling the match at 3-all, broke Taweel in the seventh game to go up 4-3. He would allow Taweel to hold his serve only once in the set to win, 6-4.

Taweel won the second set by breaking Arcilla at love. But after that momentary lapse, it was the Filipino who sizzled the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the second singles match between Ruben Gonzales against Marc Abdelnour was still being played as of presstime.