New Zealand beat Korea 3-2 in Davis Cup

The New Zealand Davis Cup team has staged a remarkable victory over South Korea in the Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie in Auckland to win 3-2 after being down two sets to one in the vital fifth match.

Going into the final day the home side was ahead 2-1 on matches with the reverse singles to be played.

First on court was Kiwi No.1 Rubin Statham against Koreas top player Soon Woo Kwon, a rising star of Asian tennis. However Statham found the speed and pace of Kwon ranked around 250 in the world too much in a match which had the visitor raising his game.

Statham had played a lengthy first up singles on Friday and was eventually beaten 3-6 2-6 4-6 after competing well, particularly in the third seed.

All the pressure then went on to New Zealands top doubles competitor Michael Venus who was set to play the fifth singles match against Seong Chan Hong the Korean No.2.

Venus started well blasting serves and forehand winners taking the first set 6-3, but the perseverance of Hong showed through in the second set with the visitor winner 6-3 and then the third set 6-4. In the fourth set the Kiwi re-emerged with energy after an early break of serve and dominated his opponent taking the set 6-2 with renewed vigour in his game.

The final set had Venus who has played minimal singles matches in the past 12 months again unleashing plenty of aces in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Venus took the set 6-3, but admitted he was helped by advice and by the support.

"I think it finally kicked in what Al (captain Alistair Hunt)and Simon (Rea) have been telling me. Some things take a while to sink in with me, so Im glad it did in time. Its unbelievable its why you train and play to get support like this. They lifted me and helped energise me to win. Its been a great week. Rubin took it to that guy on Friday and that probably helped me in the end."

Hunt echoed his players comments about how the support was vital for the win and felt that the whole team including doubles players Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniell put the effort in for the victory.

"All weekend its been huge support for the team to each other and from everyone. Korea are a really sharp team. Obviously it made it a bit easier for us they didnt sent a couple of guys, but they guys they sent were pretty good. It showed today once Mike settled down and got into a rhythm and made better decisions and he hung on well," said Hunt "Im pretty proud of the boys."

New Zealand have cemented their place in Asia/Oceania Group 1 while Korea will have to fight against Chinese Taipei to remain in the group.

Venus is now on a flight to the ATP tournament in Houston where he will play teammate Sitak in the first round of the doubles with their respective partners while Daniell will compete in Marrakech in Morocco. Rubin Statham will play tournaments in Australia and Asia.

Davis Cup reverse singles results:

Rubin Statham (New Zealand) lost to Soon Woo Kwon (Korea) 3-6 2-6 4-6

Michael Venus (New Zealand) beat Seong Chan Hong (Korea) 6-3 3-6 4-6 6-2 6-3

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from New Zealand Tennis