Mamiit, Taino ignite RP sweep of Sri Lanka

With SEA Games heroes Cecil Mamiit and Eric Taino at the helm, the Philippines blanked a listless Sri Lanka side, 3-0, yesterday to boost its semifinal bid in the 2006 BNP Paribas Asia Oceania Zone III Davis Cup competitions at the Manila Polo Club.

Taino, mixed doubles winner in the 2005 SEA Games, opened up the hosts’ bid with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Amrit Rupasinghe in the first singles before Mamiit, a SEAG singles gold medalist, sealed the win with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Harshana Godamanna in the other singles match.

The Fil-American tandem then teamed up minutes later in smashing Rohan de Silva and Rajeev Rajapakse, 6-2, 6-1, in the non-bearing doubles game.

"Both Eric and Cecil played perfect tennis (yesterday)," said non-playing RP team captain Roland So, a Davis Cupper himself.

The Philippines, the highest ranked country in this eight-nation event at 72nd, would need to hurdle Singapore today to gain a berth in the semifinals. The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout semis on Saturday with the winners advancing to Sunday’s finals and promoted to Group II.

RP is grouped with Sri Lanka, Singapore and Vietnam while Iran, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia comprised the other group.

So said he will again field Mamiit and Taino against Singapore’s Kok Huen Kam and Min Wee in the singles matches and, possibly, also in the doubles.

"They (Mamiit and Taino) need to familiarize themselves with the surface so we have to keep on playing them," said So.

The other members of the team are Johnny Arcilla and Patrick John Tierro.

Third seed Vietnam shared the Group 1 lead with the Philippines after posting a 2-1 victory over seventh seed Singapore.

SEAG bronze medalist Quoc Khanh Le outclassed Stanley Armando, 6-2, 6-1, in the first singles match while Minh Quanh Do, another SEAG bronze medalist, trounced Min Sylvester Wee, 6-0, 6-4, in the second singles.

Singapore pair Daniel Heryanta Dewandaka and Kok Huen Andrew Kam defeated Quang Tri Lam and Thanh Hoang Tran, 7-6 (4), 6-2. — Joey Villar