Pakistan Leads Hong Kong, China, in Davis Cup

Seeded Pakistan made a hard work against Hong Kong, China, Saturday by winning the doubles in full sets on the second day of the first-round match in the 2000 Asia/Oceania Zone Group II for the Davis Cup tennis tournament.

Pakistan got the upper hand to enter the next round by leading Hong Kong, China, 2-1 after the first two singles and one doubles.

After the two teams drew at 1-1 on Friday in the first two singles, they changed their double line-up on Saturday because both sides knew that Saturday's doubles would be the crucial point for the whole match.

"The change is our pre-tournament purpose, we had chances today," said trainer Xia Jiaping from Hong Kong, China, who is a former top player.

Pakistan's top player Aisam-ul-Haq Qurashi, teamed up with new partner Ahmad Wahla, got a good start when they came from 4-1 down to take the first set 7-6 (8-6).

But in the following two sets, Melvin Tong, who replaced Andy Brothers, paired with double expert Andrew Town and they focused their main attacks on Ahmad Wahla, clinching the two sets with an identical score of 6-4.

Pakistan forced the match into the deciding set after they won the fourth set 6-3 and continued their winning rhythm in the final set to outclass their fighting rivals 6-4.

The two teams will play the last two reverse singles on January 30 in the best of five format competition.


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