Pune: Leander Paes’ hopes of creating a Davis Cup record were dashed when he and Vishnu Vardhan lost the pivotal doubles match to Artem Sitak and Michael Venus, as New Zealand stayed alive in the Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup tie, here on Saturday.
After losing the first two singles on the first day, Sitak and Venus rallied for a convincing 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 win in 2 hours and 30 minutes. The defeat for Paes and his partner meant that the 43-year-old stalwart could not overtake Italian Nicola Pietrangeli for most wins in doubles in Davis Cup history. The two are tied on 42 wins.
India, still 2-1 ahead, will now need to win one of Sunday’s two reverse singles for a place in the second round. On Friday, Yuki Bhambri and Ram-kumar Ramanathan won the first two singles.
In the reverse singles, Ramkumar takes on Finn Tearney before Yuki meets Jose Statham in the final rubber of the tie. Paes and Vardhan started in style and raised hopes in the capacity crowd at the Shiv Chatrapati Sports Complex by clinching the opening set in 28 minutes, breaking Venus in the sixth game.
But the New Zealand pair fought back superbly to win the second set in 32 minutes.
With the momentum having shifted to the visitors, it was no surprise when they got an break in the second game of the fourth set when Vardhan dropped his serve, before closing out the set and the match.
In the first set Vardhan served a couple of aces in succession to dig his way out of trouble. Paes followed suit with a fine return of serve before clinching the point with a cross court winner to break the Kiwi’s serve at 15 that put the hosts 4-2 ahead.
The veteran, ranked 64th in doubles, then held serve at 15 and although Sitak was faced with a must-win situation to hold serve and stay in the set he managed it well by holding at love.
Vardhan, given timely tips by Paes, did not let go of the advantage and went up to 40-0, the Kiwis fought their way back to 40-30 but had no chance when the 29-year-old Indian served a timely fourth ace to close out the set.
The Kiwis, both ranked higher than the Indian duo in doubles, hit back by clinching the second set in 31 minutes, one break of serve off Paes’s delivery in the fourth game that gave them a 3-1 lead doing the trick.
There were no service breaks in the third set that lasted 55 minutes. In the 4th set, the Kiwis broke the service of Vardhan in the second game after one deuce call.
The Indian duo saved a match-point in the eighth game but could not prevent Venus from holding serve in the next at 30 when Sitak intercepted a high volley and smashed an overhead winner.
