Tennis: Uzbekis stage gripping revival

Uzbekistan staged a remarkable comeback to beat New Zealand 3-2 in their Davis Cup tie in Invercargill yestrerday.

New Zealand went into the reverse singles at 2-1 up, needing to win either the No 1 singles match featuring Mark Nielsen against Oleg Ogorodov, or Alistair Hunt against Vadim Kutsenko in the No 2 singles clash.

However, the Uzbeks had other ideas. Ogorodov scored a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) win in a hard-fought contest.

Nielsen let a number of chances slip by in the first set but came back well in the second.

The third set had only one break of serve, with Nielsen broken in the eighth game to give the powerful Ogorodov a 5-3 lead.

The fourth set saw Ogorodov break Nielsen in the first game, before Nielsen broke back in the eighth to even the score at 4-4.

The tiebreak proved to be too much for Nielsen after he won the first point as the Uzbek reeled off the next seven points to take the tiebreak and keep the tie alive.

The main weakness with Nielsen's game was his low first-serve percentage, which kept him on the back foot.

Ogorodov showed why he has been as high as 101 in the world and has had so much money invested in his game.

The loss added to Nielsen's poor singles record in 2001. So far, the 23-year-old has won just one singles match in professional play, in Davis Cup play against Korea in February in Seoul.

Alistair Hunt took the court in the vital fifth match of the tie. It was his third match of the weekend and left the 28-year-old with the responsibility of trying to win for New Zealand for the second tie in a row.

The 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 7-5 win by Kutsenko lasted just under three hours and there were plenty of opportunities for the Kiwi to take the match. After the initial set, he dropped the second in a tiebreak, 1-7.

The third set went serve for serve with both players winning a number of love service games, and in the final set Hunt quickly found himself down 1-3.

He managed to work his way back into the match to even the score at 4-4 and then held his serve to lead 5-4 and had two break-points on Kutsenko's serve, but could not win the vital points.

Kutsenko picked up his game, breaking Hunt's serve and taking the match and the tie, much to the delight of his team-mates.

New Zealand captain Glenn Wilson said: "I'm gutted and disappointed. We've now lost to Uzbekistan twice, and in the final round."