Battling Baker loses out in Bolton before Ward hauls GB level

Published on Friday 4 March 2011 18:48

GREAT Britain remain in the driving seat in their Davis Cup tie against Tunisia, despite losing the first of five rubbers in the three-day event.

Scot Jamie Baker lost out in four sets to the Tunisian No 1 Malek Jaziri but in the next singles head-to-head James Ward restored parity, beating the unranked 19-year-old Sami Ghorbel comfortably 6-0, 6-2, 6-0. It leaves the British team confident that they can secure victory and set up a second-round meeting with either Ireland or Luxembourg in July.

Defeat would condemn them to a relegation play-off for the second successive year but given Tunisia's obvious reliance on Jaziri, the only man ranked within the world top 1,000 in their team, the signs are good for the home camp.

He struggled throughout his opening tussle with Baker with cramp and, minus a team physio and with a part to play in this afternoon's double match before also facing Ward in tomorrow's singles, there are question marks over his ability to sustain the quality of tennis which saw him come through against Baker. The 27-year-old world No 325 lost the opening set to Baker - who is ranked 81 places below him - and needed treatment from Tunisia team captain Adbel Majid Soudani to keep him going. However, he won a key game in the second set, converting his fourth break point to take a 2-1 advantage over the Briton, and maintained that momentum, eventually taking the rubber in four sets.

"In the first set both of us were feeling each other out and I got the breaks," said Baker, who produced a gutsy display to keep pushing his opponent. "But that was a big game and he broke me for the first time."

Admitting it was a turning point in proceedings, he said he was disappointed. "I had chances to win that one and I knew that the longer I could hold out in the second set, the bigger the bearing it would have on the match."

In the third set, Baker trailed 4-0 before battling back to 5-5 and while he ultimately lost 7-5 it was another few games the Tunisian could have done without. In obvious discomfort and struggling to serve, he eventually sealed the tie amid a flurry of double faults, foot faults and suffering from very tired legs. Baker himself had to have a medical timeout to tend to a cramping in his forearm which caused him problems on his two-handed backhand but he refused to make an issue of it after the match.

"It caused a tightness in my backhand but that was at the same time he looked like he was about to be stretchered off. So mine's was nothing compared to him. That's what makes it even more disappointing," said the 24-year-old from Glasgow, who will now face a far easier opponent in Ghorbel in the final singles match tomorrow as Great Britain seek to see out victory in the tie. "My level of fitness was higher than the level of tennis I was able to produce. I could go another five sets but you have got to have the quaity of tennis as well. You can't rely on fitness and guts all the time."

Jaziri, who won the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-2, has been dogged with injuries for the past two years, battling back from knee, shoulder and ankle problems, but has previously been ranked as high as 280. Only Ward can boast a better ranking of those contesting this fixture but the Tunisian admitted the absence of a physio could leave him struggling and bolster Great Britain's chances of triumph. Asked if he felt capable of fulfilling the weekend's schedule, despite the early onslaught of cramp, Jaziri suggested he had little alternative. "This is very important for us, especially with the problems that we have in Tunisia now," he explained. "People are thinking now of politics and I don't think they are watching a lot of sport right now but if we win it will be in the newspapers and on television and if we win it will be important."

In the second match the highest-ranked Briton, Ward, was always in control, winning the first set to love. His US college opponent had to wait until the third game of the second set to hold his serve but it was a momentary blip and was not enough to stem a straight-sets victory.