Sweltering heat no bother to gritty Paks
View(s):By David Stephens
Despite offering boatloads of resistance, the Sri Lankan Davis Cup duo of Harshana Godamanne and Rajeev Rajapakse were unable to hold off the Pakistani pair of Akeel Khan and Aisam Qureshi, which stormed to a 6-2, 6-7 (7-0), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory in their Davis Cup doubles encounter charged with excitement and grit, played at the SLTA clay courts yesterday.
Aisam Qureshi serves up a rocket to his Lankan opponents. Pix by Amila Gamage.
The Sri Lankans now trail Pakistan 2-1 after Thangarajah Dineshkanthan lost 6-4, 1-6, 2-4 (Rtd) to Khan and Godamanne beat Qureshi 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-6 (3) on Friday. Playing in front of a large number of Sri Lankan supporters, Qureshi and Khan remained unfazed and produced some brilliant tennis on numerous crucial points.
They announced their intent with a blistering first set, where they rushed the Lankans right out of the gate. At 3-2, Godamanne’s serve was put under the cosh courtesy of some splendid returning, as he and Rajapakse found themselves staring at four break points. Although Godamanne erased one, the Sri Lankans were unable to prevent the break. After holding serve, Pakistan secured another break from Rajapakse’s service and swiftly claimed the first set 6-2.
The second set though, was entirely differently, with Sri Lanka earning two early breaks of serve to race to a 4-1 lead. However, the momentum was about to shift yet again, as Sri Lanka reeled off a string of unforced errors, both in serving and returning serve, to surrender both their service breaks and send the match into a tie-breaker.
Rajapakse stretches desperately for a volley.
Nevertheless, the Lankan team was able to redeem itself by manufacturing a series of bullet serves and spectacular winners. Godamanne in particular was lethal from both the baseline and the net, and Sri Lanka hit back to seize the second set without losing a single point in the tie-breaker.
This surge of momentum swelled over into the third set for the Lankans as they broke their opponents’ serve at 3-2. At 5-2, Pakistan’s serve was again beginning to falter, and a double fault gave Sri Lanka two set points. They only needed one as a scorching backhand gave the Lankans the set.
By this time though chinks were starting to form in the service and net game of Rajapakse, perhaps due to the sweltering midday heat, and he was being placed under extra pressure by Qureshi and Khan’s powerful hitting and abundant speed. At 3-2, his served cracked with a double fault to hand Pakistan a game that had dragged on for several minutes, with a bagful of game points for both teams.
The break proved vital and led to the loss of the fourth set, meaning the match was to go the full five-set distance. At 2-1, Rajapakse was again in a world of trouble, and once again he yielded a break of serve to leave the Pakistanis within sniffing distance of victory. At 5-2, the Lankans were serving to stay in the game and seemed certain to do so at 40-0. However, they slowly began to wilt under Pakistan’s unrelenting offense and handed point after point to their opponents, until finally the match too was lost.
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