Tennis: Relaxed Jones helps NZ to convincing 2-0 advantage

GD Jones emerged from his first day with a Silver Fern on his chest with flying colours as New Zealand took what should be a tie-deciding 2-0 lead over Kazakhstan in their Davis Cup clash at North Harbour yesterday.

Jones and New Zealand No 1 Mark Nielsen both recorded straight sets wins, and Nielsen and Matt Prentice should wrap up the Asia Oceania group two tie in the doubles today.

However the first day singles were vastly different contests.

Where Nielsen breezed past Kazakhstan's No 2 Dmitri Makeyev 6-0, 6-2, 6-3, 18-year-old Jones had a decent scrap with the visitors' top player, Alexey Kedriouk, before winning 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in 2h 10min.

"My nerves were pretty good actually," Aucklander Jones said. "When I played the Heineken Open [last January] I was really nervous not because of the occasion but the player [Argentine world No 49 Mariano Zabaleta].

"Today I had belief. It was my first Davis Cup match but I wasn't too overwhelmed."

Jones, learning the game at Illinois University, broke the world No 425 Kedriouk's serve in the opening game, which was symptomatic of large chunks of a match in which both players struggled to hold serve consistently.

Kedriouk produced the occasional classy shot but was erratic.

Still he led the second set 2-0, but Jones bounced back to be 4-2 up before losing his way. The last four games were won by the receiver, Jones having the last say.

Kedriouk got an early break in the third, Jones finally caught up at 4-4, succeeding with a fifth break point, before closing the set out.

Earlier, Nielsen raced through the first set against Makeyev - who looked as if he'd nipped out of high school for the afternoon - in 16 minutes for the loss of only eight points.

Nielsen's only problems were largely self-imposed. After winning the first 11 games, he lost two on the bounce. Then Makeyev broke Nielsen's serve again at the start of the third set, and led 2-0 before Nielsen regained control.

* Marina Erakovic is into the semifinals of the US$10,000 ($13,925) ITF senior event at Warrnambool, Victoria. The 16-year-old Aucklander yesterday beat her doubles partner, Alexandra Srndovic of Sweden, 7-5 6-0. She faces top seed Meng Yuan of China today.