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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Davis Cup tennis team rose above the challenge to upset Turkey 3-1 in the Europe/Africa Group II first round at Harare Sports Club yesterday ensuring they retain their spot in the Group.
The hosts sealed their victory yesterday when the pair of Takanyi Garanganga and Benjamin Lock beat Tuna Altuna and Cem Ilkel 7-5, 6-3 in the doubles having taken a 2-0 lead on Saturday.
Zimbabwe put up an impressive performance from day one with Lock and Garanganga winning their singles matches. On Saturday, Lock, who came in as Zimbabwe’s number one, beat Turkey’s number two player Altug Celikbilek 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 while Garanganga defeated 6-4, 7-5 to put Zimbabwe in a comfortable position ahead of yesterday’s matches.
Both Garanganga and Lock played some good tennis, managing to take crucial match points yesterday. It was an emotional moment for the Turkish team when Zimbabwe were awarded the winning point that’s saw them taking the second set 6-3 to wrap up the match after Lock’s serve hit Altuna’s feet and they felt otherwise as they protested to the chair umpire.
According to the ITF rules a point is awarded to the server if the served ball hits the receiver or in doubles situation the receiver’s partner before it touches the ground. Even if the serve is clearly not going to hit its designated serving area, if the ball hits the player before the ground the point goes to the server.
The match had earlier on been suspended for 2hours 20minutes due to the rains that pounded Harare yesterday morning with Zimbabwe leading 7-5, 2-2 (40-15). Lock said it was unfortunate the match had to end that way but was thrilled they managed to take their first tie at home.
“I feel incredible. Obviously it’s an extremely weird way to end a Davis Cup tie and to finish like that. But you know in our defence the Turkish players stands very close to the lines on the serve to shrink your space, it’s a tactic that they do.
“And on a match point like that I am going for the hardest serve I can possibly hit and . . . I missed the serve barely by a couple of centimetres and he was standing right there. And it’s very unfortunate that it ends like this.
“But that’s just one point compared to three matches and I think the bottom line is Takanyi and myself played really well over this weekend and we outplayed them at home and we put ourselves in good positions to win and things like this happen. “I am just honestly thrilled for the country to win, our first time to progress in the Euro/Africa Zone Group II and I am just so happy,” said Lock.
Altuna expressed his disappointment over the call but acknowledged they were given a good run for their money by the Zimbabwean players.
“Actually the chair umpire had some mistakes against us like three four points in the critical moments so it makes us down a little bit. “It (the ball) was coming from the ground and hit my feet and the chair umpire didn’t see it, so it was wrong call what can I say, it ended very badly.
“But Zimbabwean players, Garanganga and Lock, played well, congrats for that. I hope next time if we play each other it will be a better match, more fair match. But its okay they used their home advantage, I hope they win in the next round as well good luck,” Altuna said.
With the tournament now being played over two days and best of three sets, Zimbabwe needed to win just one match from the doubles and the reverse singles yesterday after taking a 2-0 lead on Saturday and they just did that. Turkey got their consolation when Sarp Agabigun beat Mehluli Sibanda 7-5, 6-4 in the dead rubber.
“Sour bite at the end, so I mean the Turkish were probably not happy with that but overall we won so that’s a good thing. Zimbabwe’s captain Gwinyai Tongoona could not hide his joy after the victory yesterday. “Look I am very happy, these guys played unbelievably well against a good team and I think we were all getting nervous at the end there and we eventually win it. I can’t explain how we are feeling right now.
“It’s definitely an upset because on paper their rankings are higher, all their players are higher, doubles team is higher. We were supposed to lose this match but winning it 3-1 I am very proud of this team. All the work we put in the last few weeks, especially last week going into the tie, I think it’s paid off,” Tongoona said.
The victory means Zimbabwe are guaranteed of retaining their spot in Group II in spite of what will happen in their next tie against either Slovenia or Poland in April.
Online Reporter