KEY POINTS:
It could have been worse, but not by much. New Zealand split the meaningless reverse singles but still lost their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania group two tie 4-1 against the Philippines at the Parnell club yesterday.
Saturday's four-set loss by Dan King-Turner and Simon Rea in the doubles ended New Zealand's hopes of moving up to group one next year.
The only success came in the final rubber yesterday, when Rubin Statham easily beat the Philippines' No 4 player Johnny Arcilla 6-2, 6-4 to prevent a clean sweep.
Earlier, rookie Matt Simpson, son of former professional Jeff Simpson, had his first cup match, losing to John Patrick Tierro 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. Both teams used their backup players yesterday with the results meaningless overall.
The damage, for New Zealand, had been done on day one, when Statham and Rea lost in straight sets to top Filipino players, No 199 Cecil Mamiit and No 545 Eric Taino.
Purely on world rankings, the outcome is no surprise. But non-playing captain James Greenhalgh's decision to opt for world Nos 668 Rea and 749 Statham ahead of No 480 King-Turner, who has been playing the highest standard of tennis in recent weeks, raised eyebrows.
Greenhalgh defended his decision as being based on what he observed of all four players in the week leading up to the tie. His contract as captain is up for renewal at the end of the year.
There is no Davis Cup play until next February, when New Zealand will again begin the job of climbing to the region's group one competition.
* A quartet of 30-somethings, led by Jonas Bjorkman at 35, took former champions Sweden and Germany into the world group semifinals yesterday.
Bjorkman and 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, 32, gave Sweden a 3-0 winning lead over last year's runnersup Argentina with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over David Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas in Gothenburg. Seven-times champions Sweden have not reached the final four since 2001.
Germany moved into a winning 3-0 lead over Belgium when Michael Kohlmann and Alexander Waske, 34 and 32 respectively, beat Olivier and Christophe Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
The United States sealed their place in the semifinals with victory over Spain in Winston-Salem, when twins Bob and Mike Bryan beat Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead. They will play Sweden while Germany will meet Russia or France.
