KUCHING: Defending champions Australia, playing without top player Luke Saville, struggled to beat India 2-1 to book their final ticket in the Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Asia/Oceania Regional Qualifying event at Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association centre yesterday.Saville could not make it for the Australian team as he was stranded in London due to the volcanic ash fallout from the Icelandic volcano, forcing airlines to cancel their flights.
The fourth seeds got off to a good start when Jay Andrijic beat Vinod Gowda 6-3, 6-3 in the first singles.
“Unfortunately, Jack Schipanski could not keep the winning momentum going when he lost 2-6, 1-6 to Ronit Bishi, due to exhaustion from the three-hour singles match on Thursday and the hot weather today,” said coach Mark Woodforde.
He said at this stage, it was the matter of the fitter team winning the matches.
“The doubles match was close but we were lucky that towards the later stage, one of the Indian players got tired and as the match progressed, our boys got better and better and in the end won the decider,” said Woodforde.
Andrijic teamed up with Jordan Thompson to beat Ronit/Arjun Bishi 4-6, 6-4 and 6-2.
They will now meet top seeds Japan in the final today.
“I am confident that our boys can beat Japan today. We are the fourth seeds and the pressure is on them as they are the top seeds,” said Woodforde.
He had told the players to go all out and that since they have come this far, they should go for a win.
“The boys also want to win as it is not good enough for them to just finish among the top four teams in this tournament,” he added.
Earlier, in the other semi-final, Japan showed they were a force to be reckoned with when they defeated their Asian rivals China 2-1.
Kazuma Kawachi had no problem in beating Ning Yu-Qing 6-2, 6-1 in the first singles.
Kaichi Uchida kept the winning momentum going in the second singles with a 7-6(1), 6-1 victory over Tao Juna Nan who was fielded in the place of Gao Xin.
With two points in the bag, Japan gave China a walkover in the doubles.
In the play-offs for the ninth to 16th placing, Malaysia secured their second win in the tournament when they beat Philippines 2-1.
Khoo Er Yang scored Malaysia’s first point when he overcame Calvin Charles Canlas 6-4, 6-4 in the first singles.
His teammate Mohd Assri Merzuki had a tougher time in seeing off the challenge from Jurence Zosimo Mendoza as it took him two hours and 37 minutes to win the second singles.
Assri won the first set 6-3 but lost the next set 5-7. He recovered to win the decider 6-1.
The Filipinos got the consolation point through a walkover.
Malaysia will now face Syria in the play-off for the 13th/14th placing today after the Syrians beat Pakistan 2-1.
In other matches, Hong Kong thrashed Kazakhstan 3-0, New Zealand beat Indonesia also 3-0 while South Korea edged Thailand 2-1.
As at 7.30pm, the match between China Taipei and Uzbekistan was still being played with the tie level at 1-1.