Davis Cuppers do good on Good Friday, take 2-0 lead

Johnny Arcilla and Treat Huey made short work of their Pakistani rivals, fashioning out similar straight-set wins as the Philippines took a commanding 2-0 lead over Pakistan in their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group II tie at the Philippine Columbian Association courts in Manila.

Before a surprisingly good-sized Good Friday crowd, Arcilla overpowered Ageel Khan, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, while Huey blasted Ageel's brother Yasir, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 as the Philippines moved within one win of the Group II semifinals.

"I played well today," said Huey. "Obviously they're not nearly as used to the shell court as we are. Definitely an advantage where I was using a lot more spin and the court was being a lot more bouncy that he's not used to. It definitely favors us, playing on these courts. Johnny and I took advantage of that for sure."

Using his booming serve, Huey completely dominated Yasir in the first two sets, and during one stretch won 13 consecutive games starting in the fourth game of the first set and ending in the third game of the third set. The Filipino-American broke Khan's serve six times, and was up a break point in the fourth game of the third set before the soon-to-turn-23-year-old Pakistani rallied to hold serve and win his first game since early in the first set.

Trailing 1-3, Yasir forced deuce in the fifth game after Huey's slice fell short, but Huey won the next two points to hold serve. Both players held serve the rest of the way to peg the final score at 6-3.

"He started to find his game a little more," Huey said of Khan's third-set performance. "He played a lot better obviously in the third set. He made a lot more balls, whereas in the first two sets I was overpowering him and moving a lot. He was missing a lot. But in the third set he made a lot of good shots, and it was a pretty good tough set.

Huey fired a total of 12 aces as he used his familiarity with the shell court to the fullest. "I served well today. These courts really helped me. They're pretty bouncy. The ball bounces up pretty high and so I'm able to get the ball up high."

Arcilla was equally brilliant against the veteran Ajeel Khan, who beat PJ Tierro in 2009 when the two countries last faced each other in the Davis Cup.

"It's great," Huey said. "We couldn't have asked for a better start. Johnny played unbelievable today. Out here at PCA on shell Johnny is one of the best players."

"Against Johnny we actually were expecting a tighter match," non-playing captain Roland Kraut. "Magaling iyon. He beat PJ the last time around. We were expecting a tight match and Johnny played super well."

Despite the tie coinciding with Holy Week, the PCA main court was nearly filled to capacity, a development that came as a pleasant surprise to Kraut.

"Nagulat ako, actually, kung bakit ganoon karami," he said. "We're expecting more tomorrow."

The doubles match is what's up tomorrow, and this early Kraut has decided to make a change in the Philippines' doubles pairing. Ruben Gonzales and Nino Alcantara were originally scheduled to team up, but Kraut said he will be inserting Huey, who holds a world doubles ranking of 50, into the lineup. Kraut has yet to decide, though, who among Gonzales and Alcantara will join Huey against Ageel and the third Khan brother, Jalil, in the doubles match that is slated to start at 1PM.

"I talked to Treat," Kraut said. "After singles today, he has to play doubles tomorrow. He's okay with that. He wants to, actually. The last time, he wasn't able to play doubles. Johnny and Ruben played the last time. So now we want to try him with either Ruben or Nino. That's what we're gonna discuss later."

Whoever Kraut chooses, he can't go wrong. Gonzales has a world doubles ranking of 450 and is 1-1 in Davis Cup doubles matches, while the 20-year-old Alcantara is the first Filipino Grand Slam winner, copping the Australian Open boys' doubles title in 2009.

Pakistan suffered a blow even before the tie began when Aisam Qureshi, a renowned doubles player with a world doubles ranking of 13 and who once made it to the men's doubles finals of the US Open, pulled out at the last minute with a knee injury. Nevertheless, Kraut doesn't want to take any chances.

"Ageel and Jalil [are] good. Jalil is their no. 2. They were the ones who played against Cecil (Mamiit) and Treat three years ago. Straight sets [win by the Philippines] siya, pero kita mo may galaw. So we can't take a gamble."

E-mail: sid_ventura@yahoo.com. Twitter: @Sid_Ventura