round 1 2008 photos

Australia opened up a commanding 2-0 lead over Taiwan on the first day of their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group One play-off in Kaohsiung today.

World No.22 Lleyton Hewitt cruised to a 6-4 6-0 6-3 victory over Ti Chen, an opponent ranked 248 places lower, in the opening singles rubber.

Big-serving Chris Guccione then came out and made it a perfect start for the Aussies, though he had to work for it, eventually seeing off Taiwan's No.1 Yen-Hsun Lu 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 7-6 (11-9).

Ranked 86, 22 places above his opponent, Guccione staved off a set point in the third set with a big kicking second serve.

The two wins moved Australia into complete control of the tie heading into tomorrow's doubles rubber, where Hewitt will team up with Paul Hanley against Yen-Hsun Lu and Yeu-Tzuoo Wang.

Hewitt overcame some early and late resistance from Chen to give Australia the early lead, improving his overall Davis Cup singles record to 31-8.

The former world No.1 took control late in the first set after Chen had made a competitive start, but the local hope lost 10 straight games as Hewitt surged to a 3-0 advantage in the third.

Chen rallied briefly to trail Hewitt 3-4 on serve but the Australian quickly re-asserted his supremacy by breaking again and closing out the match.

Hewitt said he hadn't known much about his opponent and early in the game found it tougher to hold his own serve than break Chen's.

"He's got nothing to lose out there, he was just going for his shots and some of them were coming off," Hewitt said.

"He served well on some points as well and then I got on top of him and I felt like I could dictate play and do what I wanted to do out there."

The 26-year-old said playing in the tie had obviously been one of the bigger sacrifices he had made but stressed he owed a lot to the Davis Cup.

"It's easy to get up for big Davis Cup matches when you are playing at home in front of 15,000 people or playing finals and semi-finals," Hewitt said.

"These are the tough ones to obviously get motivated for, but for me growing up in Australian tennis gave me an opportunity to play Davis Cup.

"When I was 15 under John Newcombe and Tony Roche, I got to go to a Davis Cup tie and then played when I was 19 and we won that year in 1999, so I owe a lot to Davis Cup I think, and especially playing for Australia.

"There is no greater honour in Australian tennis than putting on this gold jacket and representing our country, for me it means an awful lot, hopefully we can get back in the World Group."

Relegated from the World Group for just the second time, Australia must win this tie to advance to a second-round Asia-Oceania play-off against either Thailand or Kazakhstan in Townsville in April.

The Optus Australian Davis Cup team’s focus will now switch to Townsville in April after Lleyton Hewitt and Paul Hanley produced a gutsy fightback from two sets down to win the doubles and seal the tie against Chinese Taipei 3-0.

Australia will host the winner of the Kazakhstan v Thailand clash for an Asia-Oceania Zone Group One second round match of the 2008 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas.

The victor in Townsville will secure a berth in the play-off to go into the World Group.

The Hewitt-Hanley pairing is now 2-1 in Davis Cup matches after their remarkable 2-6 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2 6-2 win against Yen-Hsun Lu and Yeu-Tzuoo Wang at Yang Ming Tennis Stadium in Kaohsiung this afternoon.

Lu and Wang’s pinpoint returning helped them break Hanley’s serve twice and race away with the opening set.

After trailing 4-1 in the second set tiebreaker, the locals then reeled off a stunning six straight points to surge to a two set advantage.

“They got off to a pretty quick start. We knew that [with] both these guys their biggest strength was the return of serve and they returned extraordinarily well,” Hewitt would later reflect.

Hanley adding: “Lleyton’s a fighter and I just said to Lleyton after the second set `look just hang in there’ and I knew he would and [that] my game would get a little better.”

The Australians finally gained a break, on Wang’s serve, in the third game of the third set. Hewitt, who didn’t drop serve for the entire match, iced the set with a clever, curving backhand volley –a blood-curdling “c’mon’’ from the Australian number one signalling they were well and truly ready to go the distance.

Hewitt rifled a brilliant forehand winner to secure a break in the first game of the fourth and the Australians, having again lifted, raced away with the last two sets.

“They started really well and put us under a lot of pressure early. We were put to the test today,” Hanley said.

Hewitt concurred. “I thought it was a pretty high standard of doubles out there today … We had to do it the hard way, it was more a mental battle in the end for us to come through and win in five sets,” he said. “Neither of us have come back from two sets to love down in doubles before.”

Optus Australian Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald said any decision on a change in line-up for the reverse singles dead rubbers would wait until tomorrow morning.

“It’s never easy to win Davis Cup matches. When you play away from home it’s difficult. They were quality opposition, good players, we’re happy. We’re going to celebrate a little tonight and enjoy the win.”

Davis Cup debutant Alun Jones added some real life lustre to his fictional tennis deeds by helping Australia to a 4-1 win over Chinese Taipei in their Asia-Oceania Zone Group One tie in Kaohsiung.

Australia will host a second round tie in April in Townsville against Thailand, who beat Kazakhstan 3-2 in Almaty.

It will be the first Davis Cup tie between Australia and Thailand.

With Australia enjoying an unassailable 3-0 lead, Jones and doubles specialist Paul Hanley played the reverse singles in place of first day winners Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione.

South African-born Jones 27, gave Australia a 4-0 lead with a 4-6 6-3 6-2 win over 16-year-old Tsung-Hua Yang.

Hanley's Davis Cup singles record dropped to 0-2 as he lost 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 to Ti Chen.

Jones discovered the attention he received for playing a fictional tennis player in the 2004 movie Wimbledon, had followed him to Taiwan.

He was surprised to be asked about it at the post-match press conference, but was happy to have marked his Davis Cup debut with a victory.

"It was good to get a win and it was actually something of a relief playing somebody that I should be beating," said Jones, who at 125 was ranked 559 places higher than his opponent.

Jones was not the first Australian to come up against the talented teenager who lost to rising star Bernard Tomic in last month's Australian Open junior boys' singles final.

"It was great to get the win, I was a little bit nervous going out there to start with and it showed.

"I lost my first service game of the match and it was an uphill battle from then on and the kid came out firing and he was serving quite big.

"I had a couple of chances in the first set and didn't take them and was actually quite surprised with the level he played, I wasn't expecting him to come out at that level.

"I just started changing the pace ... I started looping my forehand quite a bit and a few slices here and there and just tried to mix it up, even my serve, a few kick serves and things like that.

"I managed to get on top midway through the second set and it was plenty comfortable from then on."

stadium	bowling night	hotel	Alun Jones	Chris Guccione
Chris Guccione	John Fitzgerald	Fitzy	Joe Sirianni	Lleyton Hewitt
		Lleyton Hewitt