From left to right: Captain Karl Santamaria, Treat Huey, AJ Lim, Nino Alcantara and Ruben Gonzales. Marc Reyes/INQUIRER
Treat Huey and Francis Casey Alcantara wasted seven match points before finishing off their Indonesian rivals to give the Cebuana Lhuillier-Philippine Davis Cup Team a 2-1 lead Saturday at Philippine Columbian Association courts.
The 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 victory over David Agung Susanto and Sanu-Wahyu Trijati “wasn’t clean” according to non-playing captain Karl Santamaria but it indeed pushed the hosts a match closer to clinching the Asia/Oceania Group 2 tie.
The Philippines’ No. 1 player Ruben Gonzales will try to wrap things up in the reverse singles, which starts at 1 p.m., facing Susanto who will be playing for three days straight.
“It’s not clean but we’ll take it, now we are up 2-1, and we expect Ruben to win it tomorrow,” said Santamaria who didn’t say if 17-year-old Alberto Lim Jr., will suit up against Aditya Hari Sasongko.
Lim suffered massive cramps in losing the first of opening singles Friday.
Huey, the world’s No. 26 in doubles, and Alcantara, the 2009 Australian Open juniors doubles champ, were in their elements and were visibly delighting the big weekend crowd at the PCA shell/clay courts.
It was a sheer display of mastery as Huey and Alcantara — unbeaten in five Davis Cup doubles matches so far — scored points on touch volleys and sharp-angled forays by the net.
“I think we played well except in the last few games,” said Alcantara, who was celebrating his 25th birthday. “We just tried to have fun and enjoyed the big crowd.”
They went up 5-3, 40-0 on Susanto’s serve but blew it all on errors. Then on Huey’s serve, they squandered four more match points as they scramble to close the match.