Paes-Sipaeya win doubles, keep India's chances alive

Namangam, Uzbekistan, Feb 10 (UNI) Leander Paes and Sunil Kumar Sipaeya pulled one back for India, beating their Uzbek rivals in doubles to keep India's hope alive in the Asia-Oceania Davis Cup Group 1 rubber here today.

Pushed to the backfoot after Vivek Shokeen and Karan Rastogi lost their singles matches yesterday, Paes and Sipaeya made it 1-2 and kept India in the hunt with a 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Farrukh Dustov and Denis Istomin in the third rubber.

The Indian duo looked set for a convincing win as they cruised to two-set lead but the Uzbek pair rallied strongly by winning the third and fourth sets and Paes-Sipaeya had a nerve-racking deciding set before coming out victoriuos.

Rastogi and Shokeen will now have to come up with a vastly improved show in the reverse singles tomorrow against Denis Istomin and Rarrukh Dustov respectively for India to qualify in the next level.

Yesterday, Shokeen went down 1-6, 3-6, 3-6 to world number 208 Istomin while Rastogi crashed to a 3-6, 3-6, 4-6 defeat against Dustov.

UNI