Jirat Navasirisomboon won the decisive fifth rubber to give Thailand a 3-2 victory over Sri Lanka in their Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group 2 first round battle in Colombo Sunday.
Jirat rebounded from his loss in the opening singles on Saturday to claim the most important point for Thailand by beating Yasitha de Silva 7-5, 6-2.
After a tight start, Jirat got the crucial break in the 12th game of the opening set. The Thailand No.2 grew in confidence and broke De Silva twice more in the second and eighth games of the second set to send Thailand into the next round of the competition.
Thailand's No.1 Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul, whose crucial win on Saturday had kept Thailand on level terms, won his reverse singles match against Alex Fairbanks 7-5, 6-0 to send the tie down to the wire.
De Silva and Sharmal Dissanayake swung the tie in the hosts' favour after beating Sanchai Ratiwatana and Palaphoom Kovapitukted, who replaced ailing Sonchat Ratiwatana, 6-3, 6-4, in the doubles.
The 21-year-old Jirat then put on a composed display to beat De Silva and carry Thailand to the second round to face the Philippines, who beat Indonesia 4-1, on April 7-8.
The victory meant that Thailand have now won all eight meetings against Sri Lanka in the Davis Cup.
"I definitely felt the pressure because I had to play the decisive rubber," admitted Jirat. "But we had a game plan and fortunately I was able to execute it perfectly.
"I was a bit nervous at the start but tried to follow the game plan. The second set was much easier as I had the first set in the bag."
Wishaya said he was happy to win both singles matches for the team.
"It was pure pressure having to play today, knowing we were behind. But I tried to keep focus and just concentrate on what I had to do," said Wishaya.
Wishaya is now looking forward to the tie against the Philippines as he is hoping to guide Thailand back into Group 1.
"It will be on clay again against the Philippines but we have some time to prepare for that tie," he added.
Thailand captain Weerapat Dokmaiklee congratulated the team on their performance but reserved special praise for match-winner Jirat.
"Jirat did very well. He fought really really hard. Wishaya was also impressive... actually they both were," he said.
GERMANY TOPPLE AUSTRALIA
German No.1 Alexander Zverev beat Nick Kyrgios in straight sets to give his country a 3-1 win over Australia in their World Group first round tie in Brisbane yesterday.
Zverev produced some superb tennis to down Kyrgios 6-2, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 in one hour, 48 minutes and put Germany into a quarter-final against either Spain or Great Britain.
"[To win] against a very strong Australian team makes us very confident for the next round, for the upcoming years," German captain Michael Kohlmann said.
"We showed we have a lot of good players, a lot of strong players. We showed that we are able to go further than this."
Meanwhile Italy's No.1 Fabio Fognini beat Japan's Yuichi Sugita in five hard-fought sets to give his country a 3-1 victory in another World Group first round tie at Morioka yesterday.
Fognini, ranked 22nd in the world, edged past Sugita 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 in a marathon match lasting four hours and eight minutes to take Italy into the quarter-finals for the fifth time in six years.
The Italian had admitted feeling tired after Saturday's doubles success, having played nearly eight hours in total including Friday's defeat of Taro Daniel.
He even suggested he might not play yesterday but managed to stay on court for another four hours with plenty of tie-break tension.
Japan will now have to enter September's play-offs in a bid to remain among the Davis Cup elite.
Switzerland, Serbia out
Switzerland and Serbia, missing the accumulated Grand Slam power of Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic, slumped to defeat in the World Group first round on Saturday, allowing Kazakhstan and the United States to reach the quarter-finals.
The Swiss have now fallen in the first round every year since their maiden title triumph in 2014, which was inspired by 20-time major winner Federer and three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka.
But with recently-crowned Australian Open champion Federer and injury-hit Wawrinka not making the trip to Astana, the Kazakhs made the most of their opportunity.
Timur Khabibulin and Aleksandr Nedovyesov sealed the key point by seeing off Marc-Andrea Huesler and Luca Margaroli 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 in the doubles for a 3-0 lead.
Serbia, the 2010 champions but without Djokovic, were also defeated as Ryan Harrison and Steve Johnson downed Nikola Milojevic and Miljan Zekic 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 for a 3-0 advantage on the claycourts in Nis.
Djokovic, the 12-time major winner and former world No.1, was absent after undergoing surgery to cure a long-standing right elbow injury. bangkok post/afp