Tennis: New Zealand take initiative in Davis Cup

Marcus Daniell (L) and Artem Sitak scored a dramatic five set victory in their Davis Cup doubles match. Photo / Getty

New Zealand have grabbed the initiative in their Davis Cup tie with China, taking a 2-1 lead into the final session on Sunday.

The Kiwi doubles pairing of Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniell scored a dramatic five set victory in their Davis Cup doubles match against China on Saturday afternoon, coming back from two sets down.

The highly regarded Kiwi pair, who recently won an ATP title at Montpellier in France, lost the first two sets against their Chinese opponents Zhe Li and Ze Zhang in the vital match of the Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie.

But they came back, and eventually prevailed 6-7(3) 6-7(4) 7-6(1) 6-3 6-2 in a thrilling match at Auckland's ASB Tennis Arena.

The match suffered from a rain delay of around two hours near the end of the second set and on a couple of other occasions looked shaky as clouds emerge again.

However after the 1:45am finish to day one which saw a five set loss by Rubin Statham and a five set win to Mike Venus the doubles result was vital to give the home team an advantage going into Sunday's reverse singles.

The first two sets of the doubles had the Kiwi pair in with a chance but some over hitting combined with solid play by the Chinese had the tiebreaks going their way.

The third set was a bit touch-and-go before the home combination put in some confident teamwork dropping just one point in the process of taking the tiebreak. From then on the final two sets had the Kiwis winning the vital points when required and eventually the match with a smash by Sitak.

"We probably shouldn't have gone to five sets, but all that matters is that Artem and Marcus won the match in the end and showed good fightback to come from two sets down and any time you do that it's great play," said New Zealand team captain Alistair Hunt. "There is still a very long way to go in the tie, but going into the final day 2-1 ahead is certainly an advantage. Rubin will play first. He's had five sets but Zhang has had ten sets," said.

Statham will play China's No.1 Ze Zhang in the first reverse singles from 11am on Sunday. Venus is scheduled to play Chinese No.2 Di Wu in the fifth match if required.