ZIMBABWE’S chances of staying in Davis World Group II remain bright after the host’s top seed Benjamin Lock won the second match on day one, atoning for his brother Courtney’s defeat to make sure that honours were even at 1-1 going into day two today.
Uruguay top seed Martin Cuevas made light work of Courtney, beating him in straight sets (3-6, 2-6) to give the visitors 1-0
Courtney, who is now more of a doubles specialist on the ATP circuit replaced the injured Mehluli Sibanda but was never in the match making many unforced errors.
The day, however, belonged to Benjamin who enjoys playing in front of a vociferous home crowd.
His first match against Uruguay’s number two Ignacio Carou went with serve.
Benjamin had his chances to break Carou’s serve but the South American dug deep to close the game.
The first set was decided by a tiebreaker, Benjamin taking it 7-6 (7-5) before taking the second set 6-4 much to the delight of success-starved local tennis fans.
The second set started just like the first with both players holding serve.
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Benjamin made his move in the seventh game of the second set and started attacking Carol’s second serve.
Leading 0-40 with three break points, Carou held his nerve to take the match to deuce.
Carou won the next point, but couldn’t close out the game as Benjamin fought back to deuce.
Buoyed by the home crowd, the older of the Lock brothers eventually broke Carou much to the delight of the drum-beating fans to lead 4-3.
Zimbabwe’s number one seed didn’t let slip the advantage and held his serve to lead the set 5-3.
Carou transferred the pressure back to Benjamin after he won the ninth game leaving the second set at 5-4.
Benjamin won the second set 6-4 sending the Harare Sports Club into a delirium.
The Lock brothers will want to give Zimbabwe advantage by winning the doubles match tomorrow morning before the reverse singles.
In the singles Benjamin will start off with Martin Quevas before Courtney takes on Ignacio Carou.
