MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines bow to Chinese Taipei as Jeson Patrombon faltered against Taiwanese Ti Chen, 3-6, 7-6, 6-0, 6-1, in the fourth singles match of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group II semifinals on Sunday, July 17 at the Philippine Columbian Association shell court.
Patrombon had a fiery start as he bagged the first set, 6-3, and dominated early in the second set, leading 5 games to 1. Chen, however, rallied back from a 4-game deficit and clinched the second set, 7-6, in the deciding game.
Chen never relinquished the lead after taking over in the 3rd set. He continued to dominate the Patrombon for the rest of the match, only allowing the Filipino to score one game since the 2nd set.
According to Philippine team coach Karl Santa Maria, Patrombon's defeat was due to mental reasons than physical ones. "I think him not holding onto the lead in the second set kinda stuck to his mind a little bit," Santa Maria said.
"I was asking him physically is there something wrong or what but he was fine, just that basically at 5-1 he kind of took his foot off the pedal so to speak. And that's where the top 200 Chen really saw his chance," the coach added.
The visiting team took the series by leading the Philippines 3 matches to 1 in the semifinals as they swept the first two matches in the opening day and lost the doubles match against the duo of Treat Huey and Ruben Gonzales.
Team Chinese Taipei will face Thailand in the finals of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone for a chance to advance to Group I. The fifth singles match between Filipino Ruben Gonzales and Taiwanese Liang-Chi Huang has been cancelled after Chinese Taipei clinched the series, 3-1, per Davis Cup rules.
2011 was the last time that the Philippines was in Group I. Coach Santa Maria believes that team Philippines should improve in singles competition to further the country's standing.
"We're doing well in doubles but I think that guys like Niño Alcantara and Jeson (Patrombon) really need to improve in their singles ranking and then singles play overall," he remarked. – Rappler.com