Tennis: Davis Cup joy for New Zealand

Rubin Statham in action. Photo / Steven McNicholl

New Zealand has taken the first step towards Davis Cup tennis redemption with a promotion-winning victory over Thailand in Bangkok overnight (NZT).

Jose Statham beat Thailand's Sanchai Ratiwatana 6-1 6-4 6-3 in the fifth and deciding rubber in one hour and 52 minutes.

The victory gave New Zealand a 3-2 win overall in the group 2 final, winning promotion to group one of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceana contest next year.

Ratiwatana, a doubles specialist, ranked 92 in the world for doubles, had the difficult task to play the final singles rubber when Weerapat Doakmaiklee was forced to withdraw due to injury.

Earlier, Michael Venus went down to Thailand's No 1 Kittiphong Wachiramanowong 5-7 6-7(6) 2-6 to level the tie at 2-2.

In the opening day of the tie on Friday, Venus downed Doakmaiklee 6-3 6-2 7-6 (1), while Statham beat Wachiramanowong 4-6 7-6(5) 6-1 7-6 (2) to give New Zealand an early 2-0 lead.

Venus and Daniel King-Turner lost to Sanchai Ratiwatana and his twin brother Sonchat 6-0 7-6(6) 0-6 3-6 4-6 in a marathon doubles clash on Saturday.

King-Turner told Radio Sport today that the weekend's tie against Thailand had been tough, and Venus in particular had worked hard.

"Mike would have liked to have finished it off on the last day, but he had a pretty tough weekend - he won in three sets but we lost the doubles in five so it was a pretty long weekend for him."

King-Turner said playing in Davis Cup's group one was a real incentive for the team.

"We're pretty ecstatic - it's something we've been working towards for a long time and we're really excited we're up to group one now," he said.

Group one had countries with players ranked in the top 100, and was another step towards making the elite world group.

"If we can win our three matches, then we have a promotion match against one of the world group teams," King-Turner said.

"If we do that, we're up with the big boys."

- NZPA