D Cuppers bounce back in doubles

LAPU LAPU CITY, Philippines  – After dropping their first two singles matches, the Cebuana Lhuillier-Philippines’ playing team captain Cecil Mamiit vowed to bounce back strong.

The 34-year-old Mamiit meant every single word of it.

With their backs against the wall, the Fil-Am duo of Mamiit and Treat Conrad Huey vented their ire on the Japanese pair of Takao Suzuki and Hiroki Kondo in hammering out an emphatic 6-1, 7-6(5), 6-2 victory in the crucial doubles match to keep the country’s hopes alive in their Asia-Oceania Davis Cup Group I tie at the Plantation Bay Resorts and Spa claycourt here yesterday.

The Filipinos cut a 0-2 deficit to just 1-2 after Mamiit dropped a heartbreaking 4-6, 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-9 defeat to Japan No. 2 Tatsuma Ito in a duel that lasted over five and a half hours and Johnny Arcilla – a last-minute replacement for Huey – absorbed a 3-6, 3-6, 3-6 defeat at the hands of Japan No. 1 Go Soeda in the first singles matches Friday.

“We’re still alive,” said Mamiit before a sizeable crowd headed by host Mayor Paz Radaza and Philippine Olympic Committee chair Monico Puentevella.

The Phl hopes to ride the crest of that inspiring victory as it is expected to field in Mamiit and Huey against Japan’s top 2 – 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games bronze medalists Go and Ito – who are seeking to sweep the reverse singles scheduled to start at 10 a.m. today.

And Mamiit is starting to feel that they’re close to duplicating their come-from-behind feat in the last tie against South Korea a year back when they turned a 0-2 deficit to a stunning 3-2 decision in what went down as one of the most dramatic comebacks in the history of the Davis Cup.

“It’s almost replaying what happened in Korea, its what’s going on right now and I just sense it’s coming back again,” said Mamiit. “Maybe this is the sign, we’re doing it again and I’m positive of our team and chances.

“It’s also a momentous event because for us to get a point and get into the scoreboard because I knew one match could turn things around,” he added.

Truly, it was a memorable win for the 2009 Laos Southeast Asian Games doubles silver medal winners because it ended a string of 17 straight setbacks spread through four ties including a stinging 0-5 setback in Osaka last year.

It also happened to be the Phl’s first win since an RP team spearheaded by Joseph Lizardo and Bobby Angelo pulled the rug from under the heavily favored Japan side in an unforgettable 3-2 triumph 16 years back.

“It’s a proud accomplishment by the team,” said Cebuana Lhuillier owner and RP team manager Jean Henri Lhuillier.

The winner of this tie, which is being backed by Cebuana Lhuillier, Plantantion Bay Resorts and Spa, Lapu Lapu City, Smart, The Philippine Star, Aksyon TV, Philippine Sports Commission, Slazenger, will face the winner between Uzbekistan, which swept the first singles matches, or New Zealand for a chance to play against the best and the brightest in world tennis.

The 25-year-old Huey, the highest ranked doubles player in this tie because of his 101st world ranking, for his part, said he got the needed rest after feeling some pain from his right knee and quickly wiped out some concerns that he might sit out the reverse singles duel against the 22-year-old Ito.

“It hurt a bit going into the tie but it didn’t bothered me a bit and I should be ready in tomorrow’s (today’s) reverse singles if I’m chosen to play,” said Huey, who came here in cloud nine after topping a doubles event in Morroco with a different partner.

For Mamiit, who had the most sets played with eight and hours logged in with almost nine hours of non-stop tennis, he is as fresh as day.

“I feel young,” said Mamiit, who dropped his racket, clenched his two fists, howled and then did a jiggy in celebration of the historic win that lasted a little under three hours.

“I guarantee that Japan is going to come out with a win right away but I also guarantee that we’re going to be ready.

“It’s going to be crazy out there because I expect everyone here to watch and support us tomorrow (today) and we’ll appreciate every minute of it because we will make a great show for Philippine tennis overall,” he added.

Action was halted for nearly 15 minutes when chair umpire Abdelraoof Abdulsalam of Kuwait fell of his perch going down trying to verify a contested baseline call with the Phl leading, 6-1, 2-3 and 15-30.

Abdulsalam, who called the Soeda-Arcilla showdown in Day One, was immediately attended to by the medical team posted at the venue as they taped the former’s right knee with ice, brought him out on a stretcher and rushed him at the nearby Mactan Doctor’s Hospital for tests.

Korean umpire Cha Hun Im, who officiated the Mamiit-Ito match, subbed for his fallen colleague and decided to give the point to the Japanese, who eventually blew a pair of break points and allowed the Filipinos to fight their way back to hold serve and knot the count at 3-all.

“It’s a normal umpire’s chair, he slipped,” said ITF supervisor and chief referee Wayne McKewen. “I’ve seen it half a dozen times and accidents really happen. The most important thing is that he’s okay and he’s back tomorrow (today).

The Filipinos jumped the gun on the 34-year-old Suzuki and 29-year-old Kondo, who was inserted into the roster as Yuichi Sugita’s replacement a day before the tie, and easily took the opening set.

The Phl got the challenge it expected from Japan as the former had to fight off fierce challenge to stave off potential break points in three of their serves in the second set to force a 6-all deadlock and send the game into a tiebreaker.

From a 4-4 tie, the Filipinos took three of the next four points including a Mamiit volley that tipped the net that landed safely inside that snared them the set and a comfortable 2-0 advantage.

Unlike the second set, Mamiit and Huey encountered little trouble as they broke out from a 2-all count by breaking the Japanese in the fifth and seventh games while holding their ground the rest of the way to pull off the tie-saving win to delight of the drum-playing local folks who painted their faces with the RP flag.