Blockbuster win for Rai and Reynolds in Davis Cup

Ajeet Rai and Finn Reynolds fought back after losing the opening set to put New Zealand one winning rubber away from victory in the World Group I Davis Cup tie against Georgia on Sunday.

In the first match of the day at Fly Palmy Arena in Palmerston North, Rai and Reynolds defeated Aleksandre Bakshi and Aleksandre Metreveli 5-7 6-2 7-6(4).

With the score in the tie locked at 1-1 after the first day, this means New Zealand needs to win one of the remaining singles rubbers for the victory. 

Although Rai and Reynolds cruised through the second set, they were made to work hard at the beginning and end of this match.

Three break points were saved on Metreveli’s serve in the third game and the Georgians had their first big moment when Rai missed a volley when Reynolds was serving at 30-30 and 4-5 to give them a set point. 

Reynolds went for a big serve wide, but Bakshi managed to get a racquet on it and steer the ball down the line to claim the opening set.

Metreveli was broken to love early in the second set and when the same happened to Bakshi two games later, the Kiwis were up a double break.

Reynolds confidently held serve when serving for the set, to send this match the full distance.

Both Georgians were broken early in the deciding set as New Zealand surged to a 5-1 lead.

But they couldn’t convert a match point when Reynolds served at 5-1, nor the one on Bakshi’s serve in the following game, and when Rai was broken the score was 5-5.

The set ended up going to a tiebreak and New Zealand had a mini break at 4-4 when Metreveli mishit an angled volley at the net.

Soon after, on their third match point, Metreveli netted Rai’s serve to hand New Zealand the victory.

The next rubber is between James Watt and Bakshi.