Tennis: Power hitters put Lebanon to the sword

Mark Nielsen set the benchmark for his team, crushing Karim Alayli in the opening match of New Zealand's Davis Cup tie against Lebanon yesterday.

New Zealand go into today's doubles match at Albany's Tennis Centre with a handy 2-0 lead over a Lebanese team clearly struggling to contend with their powerful-hitting opponents.

A win in the doubles, where Nielsen and Dan King-Turner play Patrick Chucri and Wahib Maknieh, would secure New Zealand the tie win and advance them to the next round in April, when they would meet the winner of the Kuwait- Kazakhstan tie, also being played this weekend.

The tie is New Zealand's first hit-out in Asia Oceania zone two after being relegated from zone one last year.

In yesterday's singles Nielsen made light work of Lebanese No 2 Alayli, winning 6-2, 6-1,6-2 in 1h 27m. King Turner was just as convincing against Chucri, winning 6-3, 6-2, 6-1.

As expected, Nielsen, ranked 305 in the world, had it over Alayli in every facet, scoring nine aces and continually forcing Alayli into error.

"I played the same level throughout the match and he was a little bit up and down," Nielsen said.

The New Zealand No 1 was particularly happy with his serve, which caused him difficulty earlier in the week .

"I twisted my ankle two weeks ago and have had some trouble. Pushing up was one of the things causing my serve to lose rhythm in practice, but it is getting better every day.

"I also returned well today which kept the pressure on him ... his back was always against the wall."

In claiming his first Davis Cup singles win King-Turner, like Nielsen, was effective with his serve, nailing 11 aces - four of which came in the first game of the first set.

But unlike the first match of the day where rallies were a rarity, King-Turner's battle with the Lebanese No 1 was far more entertaining partly because of Chucri's obsession with the drop shot, which more often than not King-Turner managed to return.

If New Zealand win the doubles today and the tie is effectively won, tomorrow's reverse singles will be reduced to three sets.

Teams will also be able to change their line-ups, meaning Rubin Statham and Adam Thompson may get a chance.