New Zealand no.1 Nielsen clinches Davis Cup victory over Indonesia
New Zealand no.1 Nielsen clinches Davis Cup victory over Indonesia
Agence France-Presse, Invercargill, New Zealand
New Zealand No.1 Mark Nielsen unleashed an inspiring but nerve- racking performance to clinch New Zealand's 3-2 Davis Cup tennis tie win over Indonesia here Sunday.
Nielsen beat the higher world ranked Indonesian No.1 Suwandi 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the first reverse singles to seal the Asia- Oceania group one tie.
With the rubber decided, Kiwi Dan Willman lost his best-of- three set singles to Peter Handoyo 5-7, 3-6.
New Zealand's next game is against India in April, at a venue in New Zealand to be confirmed next week.
Sunday's match was Nielsen's third game in three days, after losing his opening singles but winning his doubles in four sets with Alistair Hunt yesterday.
Nielsen was on fire from the outset today, effortlessly powering his way to a 6-1 first set result.
But a marathon fourth game in the second set became an energy- sapping and mentally draining war of attrition which effectively decided the tie.
The fourth game lasted 20 minutes, included 17 deuces and took more time than the entire first set.
Nielsen finally held serve and immediately broke Suwandi's serve to lead 3-2. The Indonesian, with a world ranking of 290, trudged to his seat looking dejected and almost broken, before eventually losing the second set 4-6.
Nielsen lapsed to lose the third set 3-6 but pulled off a series of magnificent passing shots and stepped up the pace in the fourth and final set to take the match.
"That fourth game in the second set went on forever. Don't I know it. Those games win sets. He was tired and I broke him straight away," Nielsen said.
"If I had lost that game I probably would have lost the set."
New Zealand Tennis (NZT) will decide later next week where to hold the second round tie against India on April 5-7.
New Zealand have not played India in Davis Cup since 1978 when Brian Fairlie, Onny Parun, Chris Lewis and Russell Simpson won 4- 0.