NZ, China all square in Davis Cup

New Zealand and China are level after splitting the opening day singles rubbers in the Asia Oceania Group 1 Davis Cup tie in Tianjin.

After Rubin Statham put the New Zealand team one rubber up with a brilliant come-frombehind win over Chinese No 2 Di Wu, Michael Venus couldn’t capitalise after a strong start against Chinese NO 1 Zhang Ze.

Statham fought back superbly after Di Wu made a flying start to the tie, completing a 2-6 6-4 6-4 win. But Zhang stormed back after dropping the opening set to crush Venus 5-7 6-1 6-2.

The results mean everything is to play for in today’s doubles and the two reverse singles rubbers.

Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak, who are both top ATP professionals with rankings of 34 and 56 respectively, will be favoured to put New Zealand 2-1 up with victory in the doubles rubber over Xin Gao and MaoXin Gong.

Then New Zealand would call on Statham, playing in his record 30th tie for his country, to clinch victory over Zhang. Venus will face Wu if the tie is still alive in the fifth rubber.

The winner will host India in April for a place in September’s World Group qualifying round, a position New Zealand hasn’t been in for the best part of two decades.

Statham battled for one hour 50 minutes before accounting for Wu. Tennis New Zealand high performance manager Simon Rea said it was as well as he’s seen Statham play.

It is Statham’s first win over Wu after losing two five setters in Davis Cup ties to him in 2014 and 2015.

Wu dominated the early exchanges, breaking Statham three times in the opening set. But Statham was competitive on his opponent’s serve, though he could only convert one of four break point chances.

But the 30 year old, playing his 30th tie for New Zealand, got off to a flying start to the second set as Wu’s level dropped.

With two early breaks Statham raced to a 4-0 lead before Wu rallied and broke Statham when serving for the set at 5-2. But Statham made no mistake a second time and served it out 6-4 to force a decider.

Statham faced two break points serving at 3-2 but held and held serve twice more to secure a crucial win for the Kiwis.

In a tight first set, Venus served brilliantly, and breaking in the 12th game to take it 7-5 in 39 minutes.

But Zhang was a different player in the second and third sets and romped to the victory in 1hr 49 min as Venus struggled to get his first serve in.