Davis Cup: Pakistan teeter on edge of relegation

Trail 2-0 to New Zealand on opening day as Abid, Iftikhar lose matches

KARACHI/SYDNEY: Pakistan are teetering on the edge of relegation to Group II in the Davis Cup as they are currently trailing 2-0 to New Zealand after the first two matches of their Asia-Oceania Zone Group I relegation tie ended yesterday.

Muhammad Abid Ali Akbar and Samir Iftikhar both lost their opening singles rubbers, leaving the visitors facing an uphill task of winning all of the remaining three matches in their best-of-five tie in order to remain in Group I.

Pakistan were promoted to Group I last year after nine years in Group II, and the current outlook presents a bleak picture for the country’s prospects in the Davis Cup.

In the first rubber, Abid was defeated 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 by Jose Statham, while Samir was thrashed 6-2, 6-0, 6-0 by Finn Tearney.

Team captain Aqeel Khan labelled the results as the ‘worst’ against the home side.

“It was a tough tie for us and New Zealand’s players are extremely good,” Aqeel told The Express Tribune. “This is our worst result against New Zealand in the last three ties.  Previously, we would at least win one rubber on the opening day. That would give us a chance. Now it’s harder, but we need to carry on.”

Aqeel also rued the absence of regular doubles partner Aisamul Haq Qureshi, who opted to drop out of the tie claiming to in an ambivalent frame of mind to face New Zealand after the hosts had abandoned their Davis Cup encounter in 2013 over playing conditions in Myanmar, which led to Pakistan losing the tie.

“We are missing Aisam,” said Aqeel, who will now partner with Abid to salvage the tie. “I’ll be going all out in the remaining fixtures hoping to turn the results around. But I know it won’t be easy. Losing this tie will be extremely frustrating as we would be relegated to Group II.”

Kyrgios, Tomic wins give Australia 2-0 lead

Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic claimed straight set victories to give Australia a commanding 2-0 lead over Slovakia after the opening day singles in the Davis Cup World Group playoff in Sydney yesterday.

The 15th-ranked Kyrgios shrugged off recent hip problems to whip through Andrej Martin 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 while the 21st-ranked Tomic completed a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-4 win over Jozef Kovalik.

Australia will stay in the premier World Group next year if they win one further match in the best-of-five rubber at Sydney’s Olympic Tennis centre.  

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2016.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.