The Sunday Mail
THE Zimbabwe Davis Cup doubles team of Benjamin and Courtney Lock staged a dramatic fight-back to put the country 2-1 ahead in their ongoing Euro/Africa relegation tie against Georgia in Tbilisi, yesterday.
Zimbabwe go into the last day of action today needing one win to stay in the group after the Lock brothers made a stunning Davis Cup doubles debut with a 3-6; 3-6; 7-6(6); 6-4; 6-4 comeback win over Nikoloz Basilashvili and Nodar Itonishvilli.
The thriller lasted three-hours 36 minutes.lt was all down to the Zimbabweans’ undying spirit when a straight sets humiliation was a distinct possibility after the Lock brothers had failed to come to the party in the first two sets.
The comeback was manufactured in the third set when Zimbabwe won four break points in the tie-break, rallying from 4-6 to clinch it 8-6.
That momentum carried into the fourth set where the Lock brothers broke serve in game nine to go up 5-4 and served for the set.
The decider went with serve until Zimbabwe broke in game three to go 2-1 up.
However, the hosts did not throw in the towel, breaking serve in game six to restore parity at 3-3 and leave the game on a knife edge.
Zimbabwe got the all important break in game nine to take a 5-4 lead and lay a platform to serve for the match.
They held their nerves and surged to victory.
Action concludes today with the singles reverse fixtures pitting the top seeds.
Zimbabwe’s number one player Benjamin Lock will take on Nikoloz Basilashvili while number two seed Mark Fynn battle it out with his Georgian counterpart George Tsivadze.
Last night, non playing captain Martin Dzuwa hailed the Lock brothers for defending the country’s flag with sweat and blood. “ It was a great performance the boys showed a lot of character, he said.” “We will see how it goes in the reverse singles,”said Dzuwa from Tsibilisi.
Benjamin hailed his younger brother for an “unbelievable” display, “Its an amazing feeling, it is the best win of my career I want to congratulate Courtney he played at an unbelievable high level, he is the reason we won”.
Courtney thanked God for the victory, “ We thank the Lord for today(yesterday) it was all him, we saved six match points and we kept fighting.” “ A big thanks also to Martin our coach , Mark and Mehluli for the support.
