New Zealand Defeat Bosnia & Herzegovina with Comeback Davis Cup Victory

New Zealand’s Davis Cup team have secured an emphatic comeback win over Bosnia & Herzegovina in their Davis Cup World Group I Play-Off tie, held in Whangārei.

New Zealand trailed 0–2 after the opening day, following two singles losses. However, a clinical performance from Finn Reynolds and Ajeet Rai in the doubles match on day two set the tone for a memorable turnaround.

Reynolds, now ranked inside the world’s top 100 for doubles, partnered with Rai, who sits inside the world’s top 400. The New Zealand pair outranked their opponents and entered the match as favourites, delivering a dominant performance to win 6-2, 6-1 and put New Zealand on the board.

Despite the momentum shift, New Zealand’s singles players remained heavily outranked by the opposition. James Watt, currently ranked 668 in the world for singles, produced a gutsy performance to defeat world number 279 Andrej Nedić 6-3, 7-6(4). Watt won the final two points of the second-set tiebreak while battling cramps in both legs.

“I felt like I let the crowd down yesterday,” Watt said in his on-court interview after the match.
“I was cramping in that tiebreak, but I wanted to put my body on the line for my country.”

The tie was pushed to a deciding rubber, where Anton Shepp stepped up to defeat Mirza Bašić 6-2, 6-4 and seal the victory for New Zealand.

“This is my debut Davis Cup tie, so thank you so much for making it special,” Shepp said to the Whangārei crowd following his win.

Shepp only recently entered the world’s top 1000 after winning the Bayleys Open in Hamilton in December last year.
New Zealand will next compete in World Group I in September.