The Pacific Oceania Davis Cup Captain, Gilles de Gouy, writes that
“The Kingdom of Bahrain, with its one million citizens is playing host to the 2015 Fourth World Division Davis Cup Tie.
A dust storm just three days prior to the Davis Cup (DC) has left the city shrouded in fine clay-like sand particles, and while the floating sand in the air cuts the 30C heat down, it also changes the density of the air so it feels like the tennis is being played at altitude. An unexpected condition when everywhere around the sea is in sight.
Jetlagged after 25 hours travelling and arriving just one day prior to play, the Pacific-Oceania team find ourselves the last players to arrive and also the players who’ve come the furthest, both geographically and climatically. Today, Monday 27th April, we face Iraq in our opening Tie.
First up with the 10am slot is Vanuatu’s Cyril Jacobe, a veteran DC player who made a great start in his singles against Akram Al-Saady to lead 3-0 in the first set. At that point Cyril’s opponent stepped up and started playing better and a tough set ended with a 5-7 loss to Cyril. His opponent remained very consistent and grabbed the advantage in the 2nd set to close the game 6-2 against Pacific Oceania.
With the pressure of winning his first DC match ever, the newest Davis Cup player, Tahiti’s Heve Kelley stepped into the court with a fantastic attitude positively oozing confidence and determination, ready to take on the number one Al Kahari Al Mayahi. Using his two gun weapons (his serve and his forehand) Heve also played aggressively when returning his opponents serve and steamrolled over his opponent taking the first set 6-2.
Maintaining his positive attitude, great energy and dynamism, Heve continued to barrel through the game leading the second set decisively until 5-1. With a “nothing to lose’ attitude his opponent played a great service game to try to put himself back in the running, but Heve with his big serve quickly closed the game, the set and the match. What a win!
It was a great set up for the seasoned doubles partnership of Brett Baudinet and Daniel Llarenas to follow and they stepped in the court to comfortably lead the first set. After two nights spent flying and having stepped off the plane from a long journey just a few hours beforehand Daniel demonstrated his eternal motivation and team spirit for this crucial doubles.
Daniel, with his team-mate Brett, used their natural power to roll over the first set 6-2 and continued on to break the oppositions serve in the first game of the second set, taking the score to 2-0 before trouble hit. Daniel served with new balls and didn’t adapt quickly enough to that, his only moment in the match of not being fully ‘on’. After this unexpected loss the opposition team started to believe in their chances, and they were really successful in winning crucial points, taking the second set 6-4.
Now in the 3rd set the Pacific Oceania duo rallied strongly to give a great start to this last critical set. With a lead of 2-0 the opposing team fought back strongly to level at 2-2. From then on it was a full on battle for each player to hold his service game; Brett for example, at 4-4 had to serve three break points to take his service game. And he did! So now the pressure was on the Iraqi team at 4-5 against them. What followed was a tough and long game where the opposing team saved two match points before our team broke through to close full, long and intense game to take the team to a first day overall Tie win, 2 rubbers to 1 Results Day-1
Today, the first day of the Davis Cup Tie furnished a great win for our team and particularly for our first day and with all the players still recovering from jetlag. Definitely the island team spirit provided the difference that mattered today and helped the team win their 6 ½ hour marathon of play. Group A and B results are Bahrain DC Gr.IV – Group A and Bahrain DC Gr.IV – Group B
Tomorrow the team take on the home team Bahrain in what will be a decisive day’s play for them against a very well supported team – go Pacific Oceania!”