Artem Sitak flew out of Myanmar the same day the tie was called off. Photo / AFP
Marcus Daniell doesn't like talking about Myanmar. In April last year, he spent two days holed up in a Myanmar hotel with Davis Cup team-mate Sebastian Lavie fearing for their safety if they ventured outside. New Zealand had just beaten Pakistan, despite winning only two sets of a slated five match tie.
The match had been controversially awarded to the Kiwis by default, sparking heated and long-running protests from the Pakistan contingent.
"It's probably something I will never forget," says Daniell, "and not in a good way. It was a strange time in a strange place."
It was certainly bizarre.
In the unlikely setting of Yangon, New Zealand met Pakistan in the second round of Asia Oceania Group II. It wasn't a particularly high level - the third tier of Davis Cup - but was high stakes, especially for Pakistan, desperate to return to Group I after a long absence.
Pakistan won the first rubber and were well placed in the second when the tie was called off. The referee abandoned the contest, deeming the grass courts unplayable - believed to be the first time in the 115-year history of the Davis Cupsuch a decision has been made.
At the time, Pakistan's leading player Aisam Qureshi accused the International Tennis Federation of racism. It also prompted the ITF to change their rules, meaning a match referee no longer has the power to call off a tie at their sole discretion.
"It all got really twisted," reflects New Zealand captain Alistair Hunt.
"I wouldn't want to be involved in that kind of thing again. I didn't want to win in that way and Iwould hate to lose a tie like that. It's good there have been rule changes."
The New Zealand camp sensed there could be issues soon after arriving in Myanmar and their fears were only heightened when they headed for practice at the match venue at the Pun Hlaing Golf and Country Club in Yangon, home to a Gary Player-designed golf course and two grass tennis courts.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," recalls Artem Sitak. "There were a couple of amateurs having a hit and patches of grass were flying up every now and again. I thought, 'really? We are going to play here?'"
It was no Wimbledon, or even Wilding Park.
"They were basically a couple of little grass courts beside a golf club where members go and have a knock-around," Hunt explains. "I'm surprised it even got through on the measurements because it was pretty tight. With linesmen behind and players backing up to receive serve, they were nearly sitting on the linesmen's laps."
Pakistan haven't hosted a tie since 2005 due to ongoing security concerns but, for the first time, had the right to choose the match venue and surface. They favoured grass and approached Malaysia first before settling on Myanmar.
"The boys weren't that keen on coming to Myanmar," Hunt admits. "But we were there and just had to get stuck in."
So they did. Their fears about the appearance of the court were realised once they began hitting.
"It was patchy everywhere - a lot of sand, with grass coming through," Daniel says. "Even in that first practice, the court began to cut up pretty badly."
Sri Lankan match referee Asitha Attygalla surveyed the main court at the end of New Zealand's practice session and deemed the main court was too damaged, meaning the tie would now be played on the secondary court. Both teams continued to practice over the next few days while ground staff tried to maintain the courts.
"They used a fire hose at one point, drenching them with water," says Hunt. "They cut the grass, used heavy rollers. You kinda knew it wasn't going to end well."
Hunt voiced his concerns about the state of the court to Tennis New Zealand, who contacted the ITF. The international body said it was up to Attygalla, who determined that the tie would go ahead.
Aside from daily practice, the New Zealand players visited a Buddhist temple and also tracked down a restaurant owned by an expatriate New Zealander, but any night-time excursions were limited by the 9pm curfew in place throughout the city.
Still, it wasn't about that.
New Zealand were favourites based purely on rankings but the humid and hot conditions (near 40 degrees) and Pakistan's adeptness on grass would even the contest.
Sitak (then ranked 455) led off against Yasir Khan, a doubles specialist who held a singles ranking of 1574. The Russian-born Kiwi struggled from the start.
"It was tough," Sitak says. "The conditions were extreme. Physically, I wasn't feeling great and the bounce was all over the place."
A sizeable hole was also developing around the centre of the baseline, forcing Sitak to change his service position late in the match.
"Imagine. This was Davis Cup and I was serving from near the [doubles] alley because I couldn't stand properly near the service line."
Sitak lost in four sets, 7-5 3-6 6-2 7-5, and the New Zealanders were under pressure. So was referee Attygalla, who inspected the hole on several occasions.
He declared the second singles match between Dan King- Turner and Qureshi could start. Hunt admits he was worried about the court - "it was a pretty handy hole, a good one to break your ankle in"-but hoped a solution could be found.The players split the firsttwo sets, before Qureshi took a handy 3-0 lead in the third set.
Attygalla emerged again to check the court at the change of ends. The hole was far more than a surface wound.
"He shoved a pen into it and the whole pen went in," Daniell says. "It was about six inches wide and full of soft sand."
"[Attygalla] walked over to me and said, 'that's it, that's it. It's too dangerous'," says Hunt, who initially understood the match had been suspended.
Hunt ordered his players back to the locker room and 15 minutes later, the tie was called off. New Zealand won 4-1.
"I couldn't believe it," Sitak says. "I couldn't really understand how it could be called off. I thought, 'this isn't happening'."
"Al was suggesting they fill the hole in," Daniell says. "That's what we thought would happen. It was getting pretty heated out there. We could hear people shouting and screaming."
Hunt had stayed out on court but, as the mood became increasingly aggressive with the entire Pakistani contingent remonstrating angrily with officials, decided enough was enough.
"Al appeared in the locker room and told us, 'get your bags and run'," Daniell says. "We were on the bus and outta there. I think everyone was a little nervous that it could go further than words. There was no point trying to stay there and placate things. You knew it could kick off at any moment."
The stakes were massive. Pakistan hadn't been in Group I since 2007 and had fallen at the same playoff stage for the past four years.
Qureshi appeared to have the ascendancy over King-Turner and their doubles combination were clear favourites against King-Turner and Daniell.
Qureshi even offered to forfeit his match against King-Turner to give ground staff time to repair the court for the doubles.
"I knew there was no way we are going to lose this tie," Qureshi told Grantland earlier this year. "There's absolutely no chance.
"I never like to use this word, discrimination or racism, even though I have faced it on a personal level many times, being a Pakistani and a Muslim. It has never happened in the Davis Cup history.
"Why did it happen against Pakistan? If it was Australia, England, any other European country, this was not going to happen, no matter how bad the courts."
Soon after they arrived at the hotel, Sitak told Hunt he had changed his flights and was leaving that night.
"He came up and said to me 'I'm out of here'," says Hunt. "I respected the decision. Hewas feeling uncomfortable and you are in the situation where you have no control. You don't know the language, the culture, the circumstances."
Soon the calls started flooding in.
"Al was being constantly harassed by the Pakistanis," Daniell says. "They were demanding the tie continue and called him constantly. They wouldn't leave him alone, doing anything to try to reverse the ruling."
The ITF were now involved and it was briefly mooted to continue the tie on hard courts.
"We were caught in the middle," Hunt says. "We were told the tie was off but were now being asked if we wanted to keep playing, maybe on hard courts. I told them we would stand by whatever decision they made, though I was down on players."
Sitak was now unavailable and King-Turner had booked a flight for the following morning. The ITF upheld the decision made by the referee, who had also decreed the court was unplayable the following day. Hunt and the team physiotherapist left the next day but, due to flight schedules, Daniell and Lavie spent another two days in Yangon.
"We didn't leave the hotel," Daniell says. "It might not be realistic but, in the moment, all possible scenarios start going through your head. It was a bit of an unknown and we just weren't comfortable going outside. It was just good that everyone got out of there safely."
Sitak has since run into Qureshi on the tour. "It's been fine, just normal conversation but [Myanmar] never comes up," says Sitak. "He has been very vocal about it. There's no way I'm bringing it up."
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