Well, the first day did end with a 2-0 lead. Just not the one the Bajans were hoping for.
The BTMI Barbados Davis Cup squad is staring down the barrel of certain defeat after Colombia dramatically swept both opening singles matches of their Group I tie yesterday at the National Tennis Centre.
Playing on a surprisingly windless day, Haydn Lewis started slowly in a 6-0, 6-4 loss to Daniel Galan before former world No.70 Alejandro Gonzalez completely shocked the crowd by beating their hometown hero Darian King 7-5, 6-3.
It’s the first time Barbados fell in a 0-2 hole to start a tie on home soil at this level, having never dropped both opening singles matches in ten previous ties.
King also suffered a rare defeat in the process, as the straight-sets loss served to spoil his once stellar 16-1 Davis Cup singles record at the National Tennis Centre.
And this was after he got out to a dream start that saw the 25-year-old Bajan ace break Gonzalez immediately to start the match.
But King promptly handed the break right back and lost serve again to go down 3-1 following a pair of unforced backhand errors.
“I don’t think I played as well as I was practising for the whole week and I am really disappointed in my serve. I just didn’t execute during the match,” King reasoned.
“The first game I broke but I just didn’t take advantage of being up. That’s how tennis goes sometimes.”
Yet King still managed to break back and hold for 3-3 after setting up some passing shots with his forehand.
However, Gonzalez was near perfect thereafter, seemingly putting on every single shot as if he were a Colombian-manufactured ball machine.
At one point it looked like King was hitting against a wall as Gonzalez proved downright unflappable while tracking down certain winners off his opponent’s racquet.
The first set remained on serve at 5-6 until King inevitably cracked by double-faulting and mishitting two easy forehands.
“I’ve seen him play at tournaments before so I knew how his game was. It all came down to execution and he simply executed better today,” said King.
He did have a chance to get back in the match, though, having broken for 3-2 in the second set off of a big inside-out forehand winner.
But Gonzalez merely responded with passing shots of his own, hitting two crisp backhand winners up the line to break back immediately.
King then missed two forehands and dumped a difficult overhead in the net to lose serve at 3-5, before Gonzalez promptly served out the match at love. Lewis also had the opportunity to start quickly after holding a pair of break points at 15-40 in the very first game of his match.
However, the veteran southpaw barely missed a certain winner before Galan saved the other break point with a huge first serve.
As luck would have it, Lewis lost serve in the next game by dumping a pair of backhands in the net.
Galan broke twice thereafter to win that first set 6-0 before holding quickly for an early 1-0 lead.
Lewis played more aggressively though, attacking the net with frequency to trade holds and stay on serve at 4-5.
He even had game point on 40-30 to go 5-5 when Galan mishit a backhand in the bottom of the net.
But Galan came up with a great return at Lewis’ toes before winning the match with two great lobs in succession.
King and Lewis will look to extend the tie with a victory in today’s doubles encounter against Australian Open finalists before swapping opponents for the reverse singles. (JM)