Three days that changed tennis in the region

Close to a month after their successful stint in the first round of the Asia/Oceania Group II Davis Cup, Pacific Oceania captain Jeff Race still cannot get over their conquest of seeded Lebanon.

“Even though that happened, I think at the time it was still not sinking in what we really did. Having a little time to digest it now, I kind of realized that [that] was really something. That was really an accomplishment for tennis in the Pacific. I told the guys before we played our first match, ‘we’re all here now and I would like you guys to look at each other because these next three days we will all remember for the rest of our lives.’ I was hoping that would be in a good way, and it turned out that it was,” he said.

The islanders swept the opening singles matches when No. 1 Michael Leong of Solomon Islands outlasted Patrick Chucri in five grueling sets in the first game 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 3-0 (retired) and Juan Langton of Samoa dismissed Karim Alayli 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 in the second.

“I was very surprised. I wasn’t surprised that Michael Leong won because I knew he was going to play what I thought was their No. 2 player. And I just know what Michael could do when the conditions call for ultimate fitness and I’ve never seen or been associated with any player that is more fit and is faster, more determined, more focused than Mikee,” said Race.

He said the big surprise came when Langton got past Lebanon’s supposedly No. 1 player Alayli in four sets. He later said that his experience with teams from the Middle East and from Asia, is that their team captains have this habit of juggling their players’ positions, although he never really figured out why.

Although they lost the doubles match on the second day, when Langton and longtime partner Brett Baudinet of Cook Islands lost to the Lebanese pair of Chucri and their apparent No. 1 Jicham Zaatani, 3-6, 6-7 (0-7), 6-7 (4-6), Leong clinched the tie for Pacific Oceania by defeating Zaatani in another marathon match on the third day.

Battling exhaustion in one of his most challenging matches to date, the 18-year-old star of Pacific Oceania held on to carve out a 7-5, 6-7 (14-12), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 triumph against Zaatani. The win rendered the second reverse doubles expendable, which Baudinet lost 4-6, 6-2, 2-6 against Chucri.

Leong was so impressive in that game, running down all of Chucri’s shots and making him work double time on defense, that Zaatani, who was once ranked among the top 600 players in the ATP rankings, uttered that Leong played a lot like Michael Chang, the former French Open champion.

Race could only smile and thought to himself, “You’re right buddy, and he’s going to take you out!”

Through it all, Race downplayed his entire role in Pacific Oceania’s win and instead tried to deflect the team’s biggest win in the Davis Cup arena to the play and dedication of his players.

“My job is just to go out there and take these players who are quite good and train them a week before. Train them a little harder than they would normally train. To get them to focus more than they normally would focus and to get a little more out of them than they would normally actually get out of themselves in a match,” he said.

But lost in the hoopla of Leong’s win was Race facing the most trying time in his stint team as captain of Pacific Oceania. He said the night after they swept the singles matches, he opted to change his nominations in the doubles, replacing Cyril Jacobe of Vanuatu with the more experienced Langton.

“That was the most difficult coaching decision I’ve ever made in my entire life. I was totally stressed out and I couldn’t sleep the night before. Juan was not feeling well at all after his match Friday but he and Brett are our No. 1 doubles team for the last four years and I really wanted, knowing that we’re already up 2-0, to close out the tie Saturday,” said Race. “After seeing Longton hit the next morning and confirming he’s OK, I changed the nominations, I felt so terrible for Cyril because I really know he wanted to play so much. And he was playing very well and I have a lot of confidence in him. It was a decision I had to make. Hopefully when Cyril becomes team captain, and I know someday he will, he will come to understand my decision.”

The long-time CNMI national player and youth developmental coach said that whatever the outcome of their second round tie with South Korea this May, the three days he experienced with his four players in sunny and humid Fiji would forever be etched in his memory.

“You know our goal this year was to stay in Group II and we’ve done that. It’s an incredible, high, and very lofty goal for us to be able to that because we know we were going to play against teams that were full of ATP-ranked players and we knew that were the only team that had no ATP-ranked players. But I know the guys on our team really rise to the occasion on big matches, especially in Davis Cup. They love to play for the Pacific, and they have a lot of pride on our islands. And when it’s time to get out there and play these Davis Cup matches they’re just go above and beyond. It was great, it was magnificent, it was the most challenging, stressful, and exciting tennis competition I’ve ever been involved in,” said Race.