THE Philippines lost to Chinese Taipei in its last three Davis Cup meetings, but when they meet again this week, it will be a different story.
“We have the edge when it comes to experience, our team members are all veterans in international tournaments but more important in our series this weekend against Chinese Taipei, our players are match-fit and tournament-fit,” said non-playing Davis Cup Team skipper Karl Sta. Maria.
And with Treat Huey coming off an impressive Wimbledon performance, where he reached the doubles’ semifinals, Ruben Gonzales winning in an ITF tournament in France, and the duo of Nino Alcantara and Jeson Patrombon campaigning in Hong Kong in the ITF circuit for two weeks prior to this week’s match-up with the Taiwanese, long-time Philippine Davis Cup team manager Jean Henri Lhuillier echoed the optimism of Sta. Maria.
“Our players are at their best condition now and everyone is pumped up to end the string of losses we have suffered against the Chinese,” said Lhuillier.
Aside from the advantage of playing in their home court with the local crowd to energize them, Sta. Maria pointed out that the top Chinese Taipei player will not be with the team this time as he opted to play in the Rio Olympics.
“This would be a definite plus for us,” said Sta. Maria.
On the players’ side, Huey said one motivation is the desire to get the country back to Group 1 and at the same time, avenge the previous losses the team has suffered against the Taiwanese in recent years. For Gonzales, who wants to play for the Philippines for the next 10 years—if he can—the motivation is playing for flag and country.
Alcantara is hoping he will be the team’s lucky charm as this is his first time to play against Chinese Taipei. He reached two doubles’ semifinals in Hong Kong prior to coming back here.
After the Davis Cup tie, he will play for three weeks in Vietnam then move to Canada for more ITF tournaments.
Looking at the state of Philippine tennis, Sta. Maria believes that the game has evolved so much through the years in terms of technology and style.
“We have to raise our level to get back to where we where before in tennis. What’s good is now, we have a good pool of up and coming tennis players,” said Sta. Maria.
Huey agreed: “Philippine tennis has been getting better, more young players are emerging and definitely, the future of the sport is bright.”