The Philippines is now in a must-win situation after it lost a tightly contested doubles match against Chinese Taipei in the Davis Cup Asia Oceania Zone knockout tie at the Plantation Bay Resort and Spa yesterday.
Cebuana Lhuillier Philippine Davis Cup Team’s duo of Cecil Mamiit and Treat Conrad Huey failed to clinch the upperhand going into today’s reverse singles after losing to the Chinese Taipei tandem of Chu-Huan Yi and Hsin-Han Lee, 3-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, 8-6, in a match that almost lasted for four hours and was littered with deuces, drop shots and aces.
Chinese Taipei now holds a 2-1 advantage over the Philippines, which puts Huey in a must-win situation as he goes up against Chen Ti in the first reverse singles match at 10 a.m. today.
Huey said that he is not feeling the pressure.
“There’s no more pressure. We came as a team, we try to win every match and going to tomorrow’s match will be no different,” he said. “I still feel positive, confident and I believe that I can try to make that happen.”
World junior no. 17 Jeson Patrombon and Ruben Gonzales were supposed to play the doubles matches but the Philippine Team opted to field the experienced tandem of Mamiit and Huey.
“It was close, we give it to Chinese Taipei. We played very well, we still have a chance. We’ve been down 0-2 before against Korea and we stayed positive,” Mamiit said, referring to their knockout tie last year against Korea wherein they beat the latter to stay in Group 1.
A win by Huey today will level the field at 2-all. If that happens, deciding the outcome will be Mamiit’s 2nd reverse singles match against Jimmy Wang.
Both players will go up against well-rested players as Chinese Taipei opted to rest Wang in preparation for today’s reverse matches.
However, team captain Mamiit said it’ll make no difference.
“Chinese Taipei will be on their toes. I believe in my teammate here. I know Treat will take care of his body so he will be refreshed tomorrow (today). I wouldn’t expect anything less from him,” Mamiit said.
One of the Chinese Taipei duo, Lee, on the other hand, was happy of having won over the Philippine pair considering that one of them is Huey, who just played in the U.S. Open.
The Philippines held serve and broke Chinese Taipei to take the first set at 6-3 on the first of its three set points via a forehand winner from Huey.
Chinese Taipei bounced back to take the second set, 6-4, by breaking Huey’s serve with Yi managing to put his serves where he wanted them.
The Philippines did not make it easy for Chinese Taipei, which was prepared to close out the round with three set points to its advantage. Chinese Taipei had to go through seven deuces before finally closing out the set in their favor.
Smarting from the setback, the Philippines waxed hot in the third set by holding serve and breaking Chinese Taipei twice to post a 4-0 lead. Chinese Taipei managed to hold its serve twice before the Philippines closed the third set on the first of its three set points, 6-2.
Both teams held their serves in the fourth set until Chinese Taipei, which was under pressure to win the set and stay in contention, managed to break the Philippines on Mamiit’s serve to go up 5-3. The visitors then held serve on the final game for a 2-all score and force a fifth and deciding set.
The fifth set once again went by serves with the Philippines going up 3-2 after going through six deuces.
The Philippines continued to hold its serve for a 6-5 advantage. However, it failed to break Chinese Taipei in the ensuing game.
Chinese Taipei finally had a chance to end the match by breaking the Philippines on Huey’s serve. The team held on to their serve in the next game to finally close out the match with Mamiit’s serves going wide and Huey missing his returns.