OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday 12.30pm.
ZIMBABWE’S tennis players are turning John McEnroe’s first Davis Cup as captain of the United States team is turning into a nightmare.
The Zimbabwean doubles team of Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett on Saturday beat the makeshift U.S. tandem of Rich Leach and Alex O’Brien, 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 0-6, 7-5, 7-5, to give Zimbabwe a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five tie.
World number-one Andre Agassi is expected to even the first-round series in a reverse singles match on Sunday against Byron Black, but McEnroe will then have to rely on Chris Woodruff, the replacement for Sampras, to win the final match against Wayne Black.
Paired for the first time, Leach and O’Brien hung in early against Black and Ullyett, but the loacl pair pulled out the tiebreak to take the first set in 47 minutes.
Leach and O’Brien appeared to take control after storming through the third set in 24 minutes. But Black and Ullyett maanaged to force the decisive fifth set as they broke Leach in the 12th game of the fourth set.
The Black brothers pulled off a split in the singles matches on Friday with the expected results. Agassi downed Wayne Black, 7-5, 6-3, 7-5, in the first match and Woodruff was beaten in his Davis Cup debut by Byron Black.
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