Davis Cup Captain Gilles de Gouy writes from Bahrain that ” Tuesday was a huge day! A Tough day. Great wins. The heat is back. High humidity. No wind. Davis Cup play is definitely not a routine job…
Let’s start with Cyril Jacobe; he started the Pacific-Oceania Tie vs. Bahrain playing against the home team’s #2, Abdulkarim (Abdul) Abdulnabi. This player immediately showed great consistency from both sides of the baseline with both his forehand and backhand strokes, and it was enough to raise uncertainty in Cyril’s mind regarding his own tennis game.
After the first three games playing and observing each others’ games, and by now 2-1 for the opposition, it was at this point Cyril really started to doubt himself which made it difficult for him to take the advantage in the score. Upon the score reaching 4-1 against him Cyril reacted to his self generated doubt and broke Abduls’ serve. At this point we could imagine that Cyril would be back in the game and the score, but after a battle his opponent took the opportunity to break back on Cyril’s’ serve, leaving the score at 5-2 against us. After Abdul concluded the set at 6-2 Cyril knew he had to make even more of a change to both his mental approach as well as his tactical and strategic approach.
Even if the score was not in Cyril’s favour step by step Cyril was working on his mental state and it was just a question of time till we saw the results. Immediately Cyril began generating results for himself with this twin barrelled approach. Cyril started strong and led the second set at 2-0, but then one more time the game turned on it’s head and his opponent broke Cyril’s service game. Cyril was once again challenged in his mental state, and we could observe that he had retained his learning’s from the first set and didn’t want to repeat this experience.
Victorious PO Team
What followed was a battle between these two players, with very close and long games with long rallies. Also at this point it was noticeable that Cyril was playing the ball earlier on the bounce on the way up, and using more spin and more angle during the rallies. This really paid off at the end of the set with Cyril’s high determination earning him a 6-4 win in this set. Great news and well done Cyril!
Continuing on in the theme Cyril carried on to take an immediate advantage in the third set leading at 1-0. He then unfortunately missed an opportunity to take the second game and this affected him mentally, and accordingly the physiognomy of the game turned completely around so that at one point Abdul was leading 3-1 in the 3rd set. Another change of strategy ensued, and with the fighting spirit that we know Cyril carries within him, along with the great support of his teammates, Cyril dug in deeply to change radically his approach and the physiognomy of the game turned one more time, this time in our favour. It was at this stage that his opponent started to cramp, due not only to the physical effort of this long match but also due to the fact that he had been so close to win and be the iconic leader for his team and country who were supporting him 100%, and who were wanting this win from him.
Who would imagine that, coming from a point of fighting off the manacles of his own self doubt, Cyril would overcome that to win the next five games in a row, and leading to an ultimate win for Cyril and the Pacific-Oceania Dolphins! The pressure that Cyril put on his opponent during this third set was such that the game ended with a double fault from Abdul and jubilation from the Dolphins for their teammates tenacity and stamina during this 2 ½ hour match. The teams precious first point was brought home on this crucial day of play!
Next on court stepped Heve Kelley, the newest Davis Cup player and outsider, pitched against the home team’s number one Yusuf Qaed. This player was definitely at the level expected of him, and right from the start his good level of tennis, helped by a powerful first serve and a consistent baseline game, led to a pitched battle on the court. Yusuf wanted to take Heve out from the beginning and attacked strongly. Heve however was not overwhelmed by this approach or the level of the game.
Yusuf started the match by breaking Heve’s first serve and carrying on to confirm his own after a long game at a very high intensity, leading the set now by 2-0. Heve had to dig in and set up his first tactic to be able to be on the scoreboard, taking the next game at 2-1. For the following few games each player held his service after lengthy and tight games with all games going to deuce. Yusuf was leading 4-3 in this set until, after an extra long game, Heve finished by breaking his service game. Both players then held their serves until the match reached tiebreak, by which time they had already been playing for 1 hour and 10 minutes. During the next 10 minutes Yusuf decided to take some amazing risks booming his return to Heve’s big serves straight down the line, doing this twice in a row and breaking Heve’s serve in the tiebreak at the same time.
With a comfortable 4-1 lead to Yusuf no-one had any idea that the game would be turned around again (as it did) with Heve winning four points in a row to lead 5-4. Yusuf won the next point, and at five all and after a long rally Heve offered himself a set point only to have his cunning opponent bluff and come to the net for volleying, levelling the score to six all. This play was then followed by an extra surprising shot by Yusuf, a drop shot volley that won him the point.
Surprised and affected by these shots, Heve netherless never gave up and Yusuf had to fight a long and intense rally to close the set at 7-6 (8-6). Yusuf may have won the battle but he had not yet won the war. His win in the first set cost him his physicality and it was obvious that he was having to dig well into his reserves.
The entire Pacific-Oceania team were immensely supportive of Heve throughout his game, and at set change they also requested to Heve to carry on with his lightness of both mind and foot. Heve was physically much fresher than his opponent and it showed from the start of the second set that he was not ready to give up, Heve brought another intensity into an already very intense match. He broke Yusuf’s serve on a virgin score of 40-0 and carried on to win his service game. Now 2-0 up, Heve kept his break until 3-2 at which point one more time his opponent dug in deeply and played some amazing shots, mostly targeting Heve’s backhand.
After some strategy modifications and adjustments Heve brought back his confidence to the court and was able to keep the score tight until four all. At this point Heve was more consistent than ever, like a wallboard that everything came back from, and this was definitely too much for his opponent. Heve won the next three games, collecting himself the second set along the way and setting himself up with a 1-0 lead in the third set. We could be forgiven for thinking that, after breaking his opponents first serve in the final set that Heve would steamroll over his opponent who was definitely physically affected, but one more time, the game turned and we saw Yusuf with an ego fuelled reaction to his opponent break back on serve.
Heve did not remonstrate or demonstrate a negative reaction to his opponents resurgence, and he remained confident and relaxed and in a good mental space. This confidence ultimately paid off from the third game in the final set with his determination, quietness and lightness of foot helping Heve sprint to the arrival line with a massive 5-1 lead in this final set. In the next game Heve created for himself a match point which his opponent saved and then capitalised on by carrying on to win the game and take the score to 5-2. At this point Heve stood up from the bench with total determination to win this battle, using the weapon of his first serve to bring this tough intense two and a half hour game to a close, subsequently bringing home the second win and point for the Dolphins for the day. Another great victory, congratulations Heve!
Now, with two wins under our belt it was time for our doubles partnership to take court. With no pressure on them to win but determined to do so and at the same time to improve their game, our doubles combo were both given specific challenges to focus on during their match against the two best players from Bahrain, Yusuf Qaed and Hasan Abdulnabi. Brett’s challenge was to improve the statistic of his first serves in, and by serving to different areas of the service box. Daniel was asked to improve the efficiency of his return and also adding a flat serve in his game when it was appropriate. Over the course of the game both these players more than met their challenges and a really good quality doubles game followed also evidenced by great teamwork.
With a solid start, Brett and Daniel carried on to break their opponents serve at 3-2 in the first set to lead through to 5-2 and ultimately closing the game off at 6-3. This first set demonstrated a great quality of doubles and this apparently easy victory was actually well earned by this dynamic Dolphins Duo. Keep going guys!
The second set started well enough with our team leading 2-0 in the score only to start to make some unforced mistakes through overexcitement and trying too hard. In the next moment our boys received a break against them which surprised them, and then the game score was brought to equality in both the score and the level of tennis.
4-3, and our boys are back leading the game, and then our Dolphins Doubles partnership break, at the best moment, the service game of their opponents. At this stage most of the people watching the game thought that the game was all but over, possibly including the opposition themselves and they were both showing tiredness by this stage and in addition, our big serving Brett stepped up to serve. However over the game was not, and the Dolphins suffered a break back of their serve leaving them exposed at 5-4 down. Our big serving Brett served well, and definitely more than met his challenge of a greater percentage of first serves in, however a mix of good luck, good tennis and great tenacity won the opponents this game, equalising the score in this second set at five all.
Subsequent to this Daniel served an excellent game, switching spin and flat serves and backed up by a very consistent first volley this provided the foundation for this doubles pairing to take this game to a successful conclusion with both playing well. The opposition team then followed this up with a serve held game and a tiebreak situation was created.
Our Dolphins, with Brett on serve, delivered a great quality of serve to lead in the tiebreak at 2-1. At this point Brett kicked off the tiebreak show with a decisive return followed immediately by a very interesting point with four players at the net volleying and half volleying like troopers. Daniel, with his good hands, made the difference with a wonderful shot down the middle and Brett capitalised on this with a brilliant half short cross backhand drop shot, it was a magnificent rally and an excellent point to win.
Our Dolphins Duo switched ends at 4-2 up in the tiebreak and carried on their positive energy and game to close the set and the game by winning this tiebreak 7-2. Well done guys! Here’s a point to note, this pair is surely breaking the records of undefeated wins at Davis Cup events, they just keep getting stronger, great work guys! The whole team came out on the court to enjoy this latest team victory and the immensely successful conclusion to a long day of tight tennis, 7 ½ hours of pure battle with the Pacific-Oceania Dolphins taking home three points and getting ourselves one step closer to the goal of being in the final on Saturday and our ultimate goal of being promoted to the Davis Cup Third World Division. Let’s go team, we’re on the way!!
Tomorrow brings a day of rest to the Dolphins and we will use this for recovery and working on key technical aspects to improve our game. Everybody already knows their specific goal to work on improving, both in skill terms and also personally. As we improve our own game we will maximise our opportunity for ultimate team victory at this 2015 Davis Cup Tie. Let’s go PO!! See you Thursday (Friday NZ time).
Let’s go PO lets go!”