Tierro, Gonzales power Phl to 2-0 lead

MANILA, Philippines -- PJ Tierro and Fil-Am Ruben Gonzales came through with impressive straight sets victories Friday in the opening singles as Cebuana Lhuillier-Philippines snared an important 2-0 lead in its Asia-Oceania Zone Group II Davis Cup tie at the Phl Columbian Association's Plaza Dilao courts in Paco, Manila.

Riding the crest of his surprising semifinal run in the Olivarez Cup ITF Men's Future two weeks ago, Tierro, 28, overwhelmed old conqueror and Pakistan's No. 1 player Ageel Khan, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4, to give the Filipinos the win in the first opening singles match.

Gonzales, 28, had an easier time as he overpowered a United States-trained Samir Iftikhar, 6-4, 6-3, 6-1, setting up World No. 25 Treat Conrad Huey and Johnny Arcilla for the clincher against World No. 27 Aisam Qureshi and Khan for the clincher in Saturday's critical doubles match at 1 p.m.

The reverse singles, if necessary, is scheduled tomorrow with Gonzales clashing with Khan and Tierro battling Iftikhar.

"My confidence is sky high after the Olivarez Cup and I just brought it here in this match," said the year-old Tierro, whose Phl squad is being bankrolled by team manager Jean Henri Lhuillier of Cebuana Lhuillier.

For Gonzales, he confessed getting the inspiration from the crowd who watched and cheered for the team.

"I just want to thank to crowd who went here," said Gonzales.

Although Arcilla is listed to play with Huey in the doubles, there is that chance of Gonzales being inserted into pairing with the former in the last minute as the Filipinos can't afford to leave everything to chance especially with a world-class doubles specialist like Qureshi around.

"We'll see tomorrow (Saturday)," said non-playing team captain Roland Kraut.

There were some exchanges of heated words between Gonzalez and Iftikhar late in the third set after the latter complained of his faulty serve that was called fault.

Gonzales later silenced Iftikhar with a booming ace.

For Tierro, the victory also ended a string of five straight losses in the Davis Cup including that painful 6-1, 7-6(7) defeat at the hands of the 34-year-old Khan right on this exact same clay court four years back.

"I know he (Khan) is a Davis Cup veteran but I beat players better than him in the Olivarez Cup so I kept telling myself why can't I beat him," said Tierro, whbo improved to 7-6 in the singles of the Davis Cup.

Up 3-1 early, Tierro crumbled as Khan battered him with his power serves to take five of the next six games and a 5-4 lead.

Tierro held serve on the 10th game by lacing it with a pair of booming service winners to level it at 5-all, broke a faltering Khan on the 11th to seize a 6-5 lead and relied on his power service again to fight his way back from three break points in grabbing the opening set.

A renewed Khan broke Tierro on the fifth game of the second set and then held serve in the next to snare a 4-2 lead.

It didn't last long as Tierro kept his calm, seized the rhythm and peppered Khan with forehadn winners in taking the next four games and the set for a two sets to nothing advantage.

It looked a little easy early in the third when Tierro watched Khan commit unforced errors after unforced errors to erect a 5-2 edge.

Serving for the match, Tierro started to play complacent as Khan clawed his way back by breaking the Filipino No. 2 while holding his serve the next game as the latter sliced his deficit to just a point, 4-5.

And then Tierro recovered his groove in time to finish off Khan.

Tierro said the key was returning Khan's first serves.

"Coach told me to just try to return all his serves because that's his (Khan) strengths," said Tierro referring to Phl Davis Cup's non-playing captain Roland Kraut.