Only 2 Davis Cup ties to be decided

Press, 27 February 1984, Page 8

Only 2 Davis Cup ties to be decided

PA Wellington Only two quarter-final places have still to be decided from the first round world group Davis Cup ties today. The cup holder, Australia, took a clean 5-0 sweep over Yugoslavia in Perth, and as expected the United States, Argentina. Czechoslovakia and France have all advanced to July’s quarter-final clashes. In the other tie decided, Paraguay caused a minor upset by defeating New Zealand, 3-2, at Christchurch. Only the first round tie between Britain and Italy and Sweden and Ecuador have needed to go to the full five matches to be decided. John McEnroe and Peter Fleming, the world’s top ranked doubles pair, secured the United States’ passage into the quarter-finals. McEnroe and Fleming cruised to a comfortable 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, win over Hie Nastase and Florin Segarceanu to give the Americans a winning 3-0 lead over Rumania. McEnroe and Jimmy Connors beat Nastase and Segarceanu respectively in the opening singles. The Americans, winners of the competition four times in the last six years, face a tough quarter final clash against Argentina. Argentina, which took an invincible 3-0 lead over West Germany in Stuttgart yesterday, beat the Americans in the second round last year.

The Argentine pairing of Guillermo Vilas and Jose-Luis Clerc defeated West Germany’s Hans-Dieter Beutel and Andreas Maurer 13-11, 6-4, 6-3, in a match lasting two-and-a-half hours after winning their singles matches against Beutel and Michael Westphal respectively. In Hradec Kralove, Czechoslovakia, Pavel Slozil and Tomas Smid. steered Czechoslovakia into the last eight of the Davis Cup when they beat Peter Bastiansen and Michael Mortensen 6-4, 6-3, 12-10, in a tough doubles battle. The Czechoslovaks will meet France, the beaten finalist two

years ago. in July. France took a *3-0 lead over India in New Delhi yesterday when Yannick Noah and Henri Leconte teamed in the doubles to beat Anand Amritraj and Sashi Menon. 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. France had taken a 2-0 lead when Noah and Leconte won their singles matches. Noah beat Ramesh Krishnan in three sets and Leconte overcame Amritraj in four sets. India was without veteran captain Vijay Amritraj, who had to pull out with a shoulder injury. Britain went 2-1 up in its cup tie against Italy at Telford, England, yesterday when John Lloyd and Colin Dowdeswell, playing together for the first time after the cup veteran, Buster Mottram, was ruled out by a virus, beat Claudio Panatta and Gianni Ocleppo 11-9, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3. The Britons grew from a tentative start into a surprisingly effective combination. Today’s reverse singles will decide which country will meet Australia in a quarterfinal. In a home cup tie, Sweden, runners-up in last year's Davis Cup, took a 2-1 lead over Ecuador by winning the doubles yesterday. Mats Wilander and Anders Jarryd gave Sweden its narrow advantage by beating Andres Gomez and Ricardo Ycaza 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. The reverse singles will be played today. Australia, as expected, won its tie against Yugoslavia without dropping a match. Straight sets victories in yesterday’s two reverse singles gave the cup defenders a 5-0 clean sweep. John Fitzgerald scored a comfortable 70 minute win over the 16-year-old Bruno Oresar, 6-3, 6-4, and Paul McNamee took an hour and a half to defeat Branko Horvat, 6-4, 10-8. Oresar and Horvat substituted for Yugoslavia's two top players Slobodan Zivojinovic and Marko Ostoja in yesterday afternoon’s rubbers. Australia clinched the tie 3-0 on Saturday when McNamee and Mark Edmonson beat Zivojinovic and Ostoja, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.