What started as a difficult Davis Cup assignment became a whole lot tougher when New Zealand were comprehensively outplayed in the doubles against Korea yesterday.
Trailing 2-1, they head into the reverse singles today needing to win both matches against the more fancied Koreans to climb back into the Asia/Oceania
group 1.
While yesterday's 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 result was disappointing, what was more dispiriting for an expectant home crowd was that the New Zealand combination of Mark Nielsen and Dan King-Turner failed to fire a shot. They lacked rhythm, cohesion and precision and, crucially, on-court communication.
From the moment the Koreans broke Nielsen's serve in the opening game, they were in total control and wrapped up the match in one hour, 39 minutes.
The Kiwis secured only one break point and that was in the final game of the third set when the match was well beyond them. Neither Nielsen nor King-Turner managed to fire down a single ace.
The Korean pairing of Hyung-Taik Lee and Oh-Hee Kwon clearly targeted the less experienced King-Turner, who was given a cruel lesson on what it takes to perform at international level, leaving Nielsen visibly frustrated that he was unable to influence the match.
It needs to remembered, however, that it's a tidy Korean side at the North Shore Tennis Centre, led by former world top 60 player Lee.
Nielsen, who went into the tie ranked 341 in the world, gets a chance to level the tie this morning when he takes on Lee, a player he has a record of two wins and two losses against, before King-Turner takes on Korean No 2 Kyu-Tae Im, whom Nielsen defeated in five tough sets on Friday.
"The key thing is we're only down 2-1 - big deal," non-playing captain Bruce Derlin implored. "We're not dead and buried. We have two matches to go."
Although it is a tough ask, at least Derlin showed some fight - and his side will need plenty of that today.
- HERALD ON SUNDAY
