South Korea led Thailand 2-0 after the first day of their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group 1 tie yesterday.
Thailand’s Danai Udomchoke in action against Lim Yong-Kyu of South Korea.
In the opening singles matches, Lim Yong-Kyu beat Danai Udomchoke 6-2, 6-1, 7-6, and Chung Hyeon defeated Warit Sombutnark 6-0, 7-5, 6-3 at the National Tennis Development Centre, Muang Thong Thani.
Danai said it was a disappointing match and claimed he had an ankle injury.
“My injury is quite serious and I could barely move during the match,’’ said the Thai veteran. “I hope I can play on Sunday.”
Warit said his opponent was more experienced and too strong for him.
Thailand captain Paradorn Srichaphan said he had expected that Danai would win a point for the team but he could not play to his best because of injury.
In today’s doubles, Thai twins Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana will take on Nam Ji-Sung and Song Min-Kyu.
In Almaty, Andreas Seppi beat Andrey Golubev to put Italy level at 1-1 with hosts Kazakhstan in a Davis Cup World Group first-round tie yesterday.
The 31-year-old Seppi won 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2 in what was his first ever meeting with Golubev, the rubber lasting two hours 34 minutes at the hardcourts of the National Tennis Centre.
Seppi, currently 35th in the world, broke twice in the opening set to move a set up after 39 minutes.
In the second set Seppi broke early again and held onto his advantage to go two sets up.
Golubev stayed in contention by taking the third set on a tie-break, but Seppi dominated the fourth to level the match scores.
“It was a tense match,” Seppi said.
“For me it was very important to come into the match rightly and I did it winning two sets from the start.
“In the third set I lost focus for a while but managed to come back in the fourth to level the score after the first day.”
Earlier yesterday, Mikhail Kukushkin put Kazakhstan 1-0 up with a straight-set win over Simone Bolelli 7-6 (8/6), 6-1, 6-2 in two hours 22 minutes.
The players traded breaks in the opening set, which Kukushkin, who is ranked 58th in the world, won in a tie-break.
In the second set Kukushkin moved up a gear breaking his opponent’s serve twice to take the set in 43 minutes for a comfortable 2-0 lead.
In the third set Kukushkin underlined his domination by producing two more breaks to take the set and the match, sealing the victory with an ace.
“To be honest I had been expecting a much tougher match,” Kukushkin said.
“I didn’t expect to win so easy today. But I’m pleased that I managed to conserve my strength and nerves for Sunday’s match [against Seppi] which will definitely be much tougher challenge.” bangkok post/afp