Final rubber scrubbed as NZ win
New Zealand have won the Davis Cup tennis tie against Venezuela, with Rubin Statham confirming victory by beating Brandon Perez 6-2 6-7 4-1 (retired) at the ASB Tennis Arena in Auckland yesterday.
This followed the 6-3 7-6 win by Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak over Luis David Martinez and Jordi MunozAbreu in the doubles.
Those results put New Zealand 3-1 up in the tie, so the final rubber wasn’t played.
New Zealand’s victory means they will play in one of the World Group I ties in September and have edged closer to joining the elite in the World Finals.
It was a solid, if not one-sided victory for the Kiwis.
Statham, in his first competitive match of note in a year, following a hip operation, showed he still had plenty of movement as he beat the 20-year-old Perez. He was also able to step up in the big points and keep the pressure on.
However, Perez was a real battler and took the second set tiebreak 7-3.
In the third set Perez needed a medical time out because of cramping in his leg and hand and when he came out he couldn’t serve, making four double faults in a row.
Statham held serve in the next game and after one point of the next, Perez collapsed to the floor and was unable to get up, so had to retire.
It was an unfortunate way for the match to end and Statham didn’t feel much like celebrating.
‘‘It turned out to be a tough match, the first set for me was really good tennis, at high level,’’ Statham said.
‘‘I had chances to break there in the second, but he came up with some big shots when I had opportunities on his serve.
‘‘Then in the second he served really well and I think he wanted to make shorter points and try to serve well on first and second serve.
‘‘But when I’ve played guys like that, when they’re going full power first and second serve it takes a lot out of your legs to push up with that explosive power, especially in hot conditions like this.
‘‘I didn’t expect him to fall apart in the third, but it was a possibility, I’ve seen it before.’’
In the doubles Martinez and MunozAbreu were able to live with Daniell and Sitak for the first few games, but after that the New Zealanders got on top and took the first set in 31 minutes.
The second set was tighter and Daniell was down to a second serve when defending a set point at 4-5. But he showed huge courage in putting a booming serve down the middle for an ace.
‘‘You’ve always got to toss up decisions and I really like hitting that serve, regardless of the situations,’’ Daniell said of that ace.
‘‘Martinez loves his forehand and I knew he’d be wanting to hit a forehand on a point that big.
‘‘It looked like a high risk option, but it didn’t feel outrageous and it was the right decision.’’
He eventually held serve and after that the set went into a tiebreak, which Daniell and Sitak won 7-3.
‘‘It was a tough match, which we expected,’’ Sitak reflected afterwards.
‘‘But we came out really strong at the beginning, which was our plan. We broke them early in the first set and held comfortably throughout the whole set.
‘‘In the second set we had a few chances at the beginning and we didn’t take them and that gave them confidence.
‘‘I knew that coming into a tiebreak we were going to be better, that we were going to be clutch, make some returns, put some pressure on them and that’s what happened.’’