The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
THERE was very little to separate Zimbabwe and Uruguay during the opening day of their Davis Cup World Group II play-off at Harare Sports Club on Friday.
Each team won a game, as Courtney Lock went down 6-3, 6-2 to Uruguay’s top-seed Martin Cuevas, after which his older brother, Benjamin, restored parity with a 7-6, (7-5), 6-4 victory over Ignacio Carou to leave the tie deadlocked at one apiece heading into Saturday’s doubles and reverse singles.
Courtney Lock, subbing in for the injured Mehluli Sibanda, found the going tough, as he was clearly outmatched by the World number 464 Uruguay top seed.
The Zimbabwean doubles expert was the first to break his opponent in the third game after both players had held their opening serve to take a 2-1 lead in the first set.
However, that lead did not last long as Cuevas broke Lock in the very next game and later took full control of the match.
The South American did not have to wait long to break his opponent, doing so in the eighth game of the encounter.
This put him at 5-3 and sealed the opening set in the very next game to take a one-nil lead in the encounter.
The second set was largely one-way traffic, as Cuevas broke Lock in the very first game of the set and again in the fifth to finish the match 6-3, 6-2.
Luckily for both Zimbabwe and the Lock sibling, Benjamin was on hand to avenge his younger brother’s defeat.
Benjamin Lock and his South American opponent traded breaks in the third and fourth games of their opening set, and had to be separated by a tiebreaker in which the Zimbabwean won 7-5.
However, the second set was a totally different story.
All Benjamin needed to seal both the set and match was the solitary break, which eventually came in the seventh and resulted in the Zimbabwean taking the set 6-4.
With scores even, the encounter now heads into Saturday’s doubles, where the Lock brothers will unite and meet the Uruguay pairing of Cuevas and Ariel Behar.
The two brothers will again be in action when they play the reverse singles, with Benjamin this time meeting Cuevas, while his younger brother squares up against Carou.
