Pinoys, Indons split singles

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am Treat Huey made short work of Elbert Sie, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3, as the Philippines split its opening singles matches with Indonesia in the Asia-Oceania Zone Group II final Davis Cup tie in Jakarta yesterday.

Huey’s emphatic victory over the hosts’ No. 2 came a couple of hours after Casey Alcantara dropped a 6-7(3), 2-6, 6-3, 0-6, defeat to Indonesia No. 1 Christopher Rungkat in the first singles match.

The split thus made today’s doubles match crucial with the Phl’s Ruben Gonzales and Jeson Patrombon going up against Rungkat, ranked 292nd in singles in the world, and Sie.

But the Phl camp is expected to make some changes and may insert Huey, the highest ranked doubles player here at 39th in the world, an hour before the match.

Huey is also tipped to play in the deciding reverse singles tomorrow against Rungkat, who struggled against Alcantara, a former world juniors standout playing for a US NCAA school, in the opening set.

But Rungkat asserted his might in the next, yielded the third before stamping his class in the fourth to score a shutout en route to victory.

The reverse singles match will pit Alcantara against Sie although the Filipinos may make some last minute changes to bolster their bid.

Phl Davis Cup administrator Randy Alcantara, meanwhile, has complained of bad line calls in the Rungkat-Alcantara duel.

“Rungkat is a very good player that’s why he is ranked high, but Alcantara had so many chances especially in the crucial first set,” said Alcantara. “But out here in Indonesia, you can’t hit a line ball if you are the visitor, all line balls here that you hit are literally called out. 

“In the crucial tiebreak on the first set, there was two crucial calls right at the start and this helped Rungkat win that set,” he added.