Tough challenge from Paraguay

Press, 13 October 1983, Page 36

Tough challenge from Paraguay

By

JOHN BROOKS

The New Zealand tennis team will face its toughest first round tie in the Davis Cup since the non-zonal competition was introduced when it trades shots with Paraguay at Wilding Park next February. Although it has rarely caught the sporting spotlight, Paraguay boasts a formidable team. It lost, 2-3, to the eventual runner-up, France, in this year’s quar-ter-finals, and its two players, Victor Pecci and Francisco Gonzalez, are both strong servers and firm volleyers, with a liking for hitting winners from the

net. Both men have beaten Jimmy Connors in the semifinals of major tournaments, and the publicity officer of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association, Mr David Blackwell, yesterday described them as forming the best ranked cup side to visit Christchurch since the 1979 Australians.

“In fact, they are possibly better than that Australian team, so they could be the best since 1911,” he said. Before Davis Cup tennis burst upon Wilding Park in 1979, the city’s only other tie had been between Australasia and the United States at Lancaster Park in 1911-12.

Pecci, who will turn 28 this Saturday, is one of the most charismatic players on the world circuit. He toppled Guillermo Vilas and Connors to reach the final of the 1979 French Open, in which he succumbed in four sets to Bjorn Borg, and later beat John McEnroe at Forest Hills.

He can probably play without the nagging nervousness which grips some breadline players, because his wife, Mercedes, is the granddaughter of a millionaire food processer. This could explain why Pecci wears a diamond in his right ear. Paraguay is a country

with fewer than 1000 active tennis players, so it has only a tenth of the Canterbury membership. But the national team has belied that narrow base since last year when Gonzalez left Puerto Rico for Paraguay, joining forces with the home-grown Pecci. An affable giant of 1.9 m, “Cisco” Gonzalez loves the serve-and-volley game, which is not good news for the New Zealanders. He used it to good effect to beat Connors in the 1980 A.T.P. championship on concrete in Cincinnati, but he is good on all surfaces. So, unlike the last few years, New Zealand will

have a real dog-fight on its hands in this tie. Defeat would force the home side to play a further tie to justify its place among the top 16 nations for the 1985 competition. Mr Blackwell said the Christchurch tennis organising system swung into action within two hours of the news of the tie being received, and a number of measures were soon implemented. The contest will be held on February 24, 25 and 26. Preparations will broadly follow the format for previous ties at Wilding Park, and temporary seating will again be used.