Japanese duo caps 3-0 win over RP Davis Cuppers

The Philippines’ Cecil Mamiit and Eric Taino put up a gallant stand before bowing to Japan’s Go Soeda and Takao Suzuki yesterday, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (8), 6-7 (5), 4-6, and allowing the visitors to clinch the Asia-Oceania Zone Group I Davis Cup tie at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

After sweeping the opening singles for a 2-0 lead the other day, the Japanese paired Suzuki, a 13-year Davis Cup veteran, with the youthful Soeda instead of doubles specialist Satoshi Iwabuchi, who was bothered by a bad back all week.

The ploy worked pretty well for Japan, which lost to Romania in last year’s World Group qualifier, as the Suzuki-Soeda duo played beautiful tennis together in overcoming the Pinoy tandem in a gripping game that lasted more than four hours.

“I’ve seen them (Mamiit and Taino) play, I know they put a lot of effort, and I saw their playing spirit in the (Doha) Asian Games,” said Japan non-playing team captain Eiji Takeuchi.

The loss rendered non-bearing today’s reverse singles matches pitting Mamiit against Soeda at 10 a.m. and Taino versus Suzuki at 1 p.m.

And with it went the Filipinos’ hopes of advancing to the tough World Group for the first time since a team led by Felix Barrientos and Roland So made it 17 years ago before losing to powerhouse Sweden.

“We were right there. We were close,” said a teary-eyed Mamiit, who is leaving next week to join a tournament in Thailand. He will then fly to the US for some rest before returning here for RP’s Group I consolation match with the winner of the India-Uzbekistan duel.

The winner of the next tie stays in Group 1.

It was the first time RP lost a tie since Mamiit, the reigning Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, and Taino got on board to carry the country from down the trenches of Group 3 to where it is right now.

“We did all we could to win this tie and I’m proud of this team for putting up a good fight. It’s just a bump on the road. We will give it our best to stay in Group I because we worked really hard for this,” said Taino.

It was a sorry loss for the Filipinos as they failed to pounce on golden opportunities in tiebreakers in the second and third sets.

It was also Takeuchi’s first Davis Cup win over the Filipinos on RP soil after a pair of unforgettable losses in 1988 when as a player Japan blew a 2-0 advantage and lost, 2-3, then as a coach in 1995 when the Shuo Matzuoka-led team fell to RP, 2-3.

“I’m very happy to win here for the first time,” said a jubilant Takeuchi.

For the 31-year-old Suzuki, who started his Davis Cup career here in the Philippines where he won a doubles match in the 1995 tie, the win was one of the great battles he fought.

“I’ve played in the Davis Cup long enough and this was one of the toughest games I played,” said Suzuki, who has won 37 – 25 singles and 12 doubles – in 56 Davis Cup matches.

Taino, who had to sit out the opening singles in favor of Tierro due to a viral infection, was still bothered by it but didn’t use that as an excuse.

“It didn’t cross my mind that I had the flu but I was a little tired in the middle of the second set,” said Taino.

Takeuchi, however, noticed that Taino was obviously bothered.

“If he was faster than in this game, it would have been tougher and the results could have been different,” observed Takeuchi.

After holding in the first six games of the fourth set to knot the count at 3-all, the Filipinos had four chances of breaking the Japanese in the seventh game but couldn’t cash in as the latter managed to extricate themselves out of trouble on each occasion.

At one point, RP went ahead 40-15, but Soeda, who had a jittery start, blasted an ace he followed with a service winner to force deuce.

After four more deuces, a long service return by Taino and a volley by Mamiit that found the net ended the Filipinos bid of seizing a 4-3 lead, and instead went down, 3-4.