Hosts Thailand and Kuwait shared the spoils on the opening day of their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group II tie yesterday.
Thailand’s Prachya Isarow in action against Kuwait’s Abdulhameed Alshatti at Muang Thong Thani.
Thailand’s No.1 Prachya Isarow beat Abdulhameed Alshatti 3-0 and Mohammad Ghareeb made it 1-1 with a 3-2 win against Wichaya Trongcharoenchaikul at the National Tennis Development Centre, Muang Thong Thani.
In the opening singles, Prachya had few problems against Alshatti winning 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 in 73 minutes.
“At the beginning, I did not expect to get a result like this,” he said. “The opponent made a lot of unforced errors. I only played my game and tried to avoid mistakes.”
In the second singles, Wichaya won the first set 6-3 and Ghareeb was leading 2-1 in the secong set when play was suspended due to rain.
After a two-hour break, Ghareeb returned to take the second set 7-6 (6), and also took the third set 7-6 (4).
The 19-year-old Thai regrouped in the fourth set to win 6-3 but Ghareeb finished him off 7-5 in the deciding set.
The winners of the tie will reach the final of Asia/Oceania Group II with the winners moving up to Group I.
Today’s doubles match starts at 1pm.
Meanwhile, before yesterday’s action, former Thailand players Worapol Thongkumchu, Vitthaya Sumrej and Paradorn Srichaphan received the commitment awards from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for playing more than 20 Davis Cup matches for their country.
In Tokyo, the Czech Republic took a 2-0 lead against Japan in the World Group quarter-finals yesterday.
Radek Stepanek beat Tatsuma Ito 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-1, 7-5, and Lukas Rosol beat Taro Daniel 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2.
Ito and Daniel are bearing the weight of Japan’s hopes of prgressing after world No.18 Kei Nishikori withdrew with a groin strain and Go Soeda was laid low by a fever.