MANILA, Philippines - Coach Karl Sta. Maria and the Philippine Davis Cup team promised a quick victory against Sri Lanka. They delivered.
Bucking a slow, erratic start, Fil-Am Treat Conrad Huey and US-based Francis Casey Alcantara turned back Sharmal Dissanayake and Dineshkanthan Thangarajah, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, in the doubles to clinch their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group II tie at the Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig City last night.
Failing to find their groove, Huey and Alcantara, whose team is being bankrolled by Cebuana Lhuillier and Philippine Sports Commission, dropped the opening set and the first two games of the second but kept their composure and recovered in time to turn things around.
“To their credit, they (Dissanayake and Thangarajah) played really well in the first set while we’re a little tight,” said the 22-year-old Alcantara, who has an athletic scholarship at Pepperdine University.
“Thankfully, we found our rhythm in time,” he added.
For Sta. Maria, who is coaching his first Davis Cup, it was mission accomplished.
“Our plan is to beat them early and not give them a chance because we don’t want any complications in the reverse singles. Good thing the players delivered,” said Sta. Maria, who coached the men’s and women’s National University teams to multiple UAAP crowns.
It wasn’t easy though.
Patrick John Tierro, the country’s No. 1 netter, had to dig deep into his bag of tricks to overhaul a two-set deficit and turn in a nail-biting 5-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0, 6-3 victory over Harshana Godamanna in the first singles match Friday.
Fil-Am Ruben Gonzales then scrambled to beat Sri Lankan No. 1 Sharmal Dissanayake, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1, to sweep the first singles matches and give the Filipinos a commanding 2-0 (win-loss) edge.
And then Huey and Alcantara brought out the broom.
“It’s a confidence-booster for us,” said Phl non-playing team captain Roland Kraut, whose charges are taking on the winner of the Chinese Taipei-Lebanon showdown in July.
The doubles win thus rendered today’s reverse singles non-bearing although the scheduled Tierro-Dissanayake and Gonzales-Godamanna matches will still be played in best-of-three duels instead of best-of-five.
The day though belonged to Huey and Alcantara, who kept their record perfect in three matches since they partnered two years ago.
“It’s a nice a partnership,” said Huey.