12 Feb 2012

NZ beaten in Davis Cup

6:30 pm on 12 February 2012

Uzbekistan has beaten New Zealand 3-2 in their Asia-Oceania group 1 Davis Cup tennis tie in Tauranga on Saturday.

The Uzbeks beat the New Zealand doubles pairing of Michael Venus and Dan King-Turner in straight sets to take an unbeatenable 3-0 lead in the tie.

New Zealand rallied to win the final two 'dead' reverse singles matches on Sunday after giving the team's regular singles players a rest.

Both team captains substituted in players to give them game time.

In the first reverse singles match Artem Sitak played for New Zealand against Uzbek Murad Inoyatov and won 6-2 3-6 6-3.

Dan King-Turner then played the final clash against Sarvar Ikramov and won 4-6 6-4 6-3

in his first singles match for New Zealand in Davis Cup for nearly 18 months.