Sports

Published on January 31st, 2014 | by John Lyons

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Massú´s Chile stunned by Barbados fightback

Chile have plenty of work to do in their Davis Cup tie against unfancied Barbados after sharing the opening two rubbers.

Barbados – It looked as though it would be plain sailing in Nicolás Massú´s first match as captain when Gonzalo Lama, world ranked 289, won the opening match in straight sets.

The 20-year-old defeated the unranked Haydn Lewis 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 to mark his Davis Cup debut in style.

And the script looked to be going exactly to plan when 17-year-old Garín (380) claimed the first set 6-2 against Barbados number one Darian King (458).

However, that´s when things started to go wrong. King won the second set on a tie-break to level things up and then claimed the third set 7-5.

Hopes of a Garín comeback in the fourth set failed to materialise and 21-year-old King took the set, and the match, 6-3.

It means tomorrow´s doubles, which is set to feature Jorge Aguilar and Hans Podlipnik for Chile against King and Lewis, takes on extra importance.

Whoever wins that match will put themselves in a strong position to earn victory when the final two singles matches take place on Sunday.

Meanwhile, there was some good news for Chilean tennis on Friday when teenager Nicolás Jarry (828) reached his first futures tournament final.

The grandson of former Chilean tennis star Jaime Fillol took the scalp of Argentinian Andrés Molteni (258), the second favourite, in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, in Córdoba.

The 18-year-old will play an Argentinian in the final – either Andrea Collarini (257), the top seed, or Gabriel Hidalgo (367).


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