Taiwan’s top tennis players yesterday were unable to overcome a 2-0 deficit to survive their Davis Cup qualifier against France in Taipei.
France dominated Taiwan in the first two days of the Davis Cup, adding two more victories yesterday for a 4-0 win over Taiwan to book their place in the group stages.
France secured their passage when Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin came back from a set down to beat Hsu Yu-hsiou and Jason Jung 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/1).
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
“We were perhaps a little timid at the start,” Roger-Vasselin said. “We stayed calm. We knew our level of play was going to change. We had to keep our nerve.”
Quentin Halys rounded off the French victory with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) win over World No. 305 Chun Hsin-tseng.
On Saturday, World No. 230 Hsu, Taiwan’s top player in the men’s singles category, lost 6-4, 6-4 to 19-year-old world No. 68 Luca Van Assche.
“[I] had prepped to win, but the results were not all that satisfactory,” Hsu said in a post-game interview, adding that he and his team had set up offensive strategies that did not pay off.
“The match technically concluded how I expected it would,” he added. “But I think it could have gone better.”
However, Hsu said the match was a learning experience, as he was able to observe how one of the world’s top 100 players reacted during critical moments.
Also on Saturday, world No. 238 Wu Tung-lin lost to world No. 17 Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 7-5.
Prior to the matches, all available tickets to the Taipei Tennis Center were sold out.
Hsu said that being cheered on by almost 3,000 fans at the center left quite an impression on him.
“It is great that so many supporters came to cheer for me and Taiwan,” he said. “I have had experiences with big crowds at competitions, but they were not all supporting me. I really enjoyed playing like that.”
Yesterday, India eased past Pakistan 4-0 in their World Group I play-off tie, while on Saturday, Serbia, without Novak Djokovic, proved no match for Slovakia who surged into the group stage of the Davis Cup for the first time, with Germany and Finland among five other countries qualifying.
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