Davis Cup: Japan stun India

Osaka:

Gouichi Motomura pulled off a stunning victory against Leander Paes in the deciding singles rubber for a 3-2 to give Japan their first win against India in 74 years in Davis Cup tennis in Osaka today. The best-of-five contest hinged on whether Motomoru would be able to beat the Indian ace and former world doubles number one in one of his three matches in the Asia-Oceania zone Group One second round tie. And Motomura successfully did it, beating Paes 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7/4) for a place in a playoff for the World Group after Takao Suzuki tied the contest with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 win over Prakash Amritraj earlier in the day. On Friday, Motomura defeated Amritraj, while Paes downed Suzuki, both in four sets, to start with a one-all. But Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, the former world number one doubles pair, whipped Takahiro Terachi and Thomas Shimada 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the doubles Saturday, which was an expected result. Paes, who has no ATP singles rankings currently, made a remarkable return to tennis after he was sidelined for six months last season after a non-malignant lesion was discovered on his brain in August. Japan won their first two encounters with India 5-0 in 1921 and 1930, but India have since defeated them 17 times in a row in their 19 Davis Cup encounters. Japan raced through the second round by beating Indonesia 3-2, while India defeated New Zealand 3-2 with Paes winning his two singles and one doubles match with Mahesh Bhupathi in February.(PTI)

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