Statham fights to the end in Davis Cup tie against Luxembourg

The New Zealand Davis Cup team put up a courageous fight against Luxembourg in Palmerston North on Sunday, but have lost the tie 3-2, following Rubin Statham’s hard-fought loss.

After tight defeats for KP Pannu and Ajeet Rai in the singles matches on Saturday, the Artem Sitak-captained team were attempting to do something rarely achieved in the history of this competition, come back from 2-0.

Although they weren’t quite able to do it, they came incredibly close, with Ajeet Rai and Finn Reynolds winning the doubles, then Jack Loutit winning his maiden Davis Cup match to keep the tie live up until its final match, between Rubin Statham and Alex Knaff.

Knaff won the battle 6-3 6-2 against Statham to secure the victory for Luxembourg.

This was Statham’s final appearance for the New Zealand Davis Cup team. The 37-year-old plans to continue playing next season, but has decided that after making his debut for his country in 2005, he feels the time is right to stand aside.

He was given a standing ovation from everyone in the crowd as he gave his farewell speech, with the Luxembourg team also applauding Statham for his contribution to Davis Cup tennis.

As for the match, it was a closer battle than the scoreline suggests.

Statham was broken early in the opening set to fall behind 2-0, but the veteran knows that a break isn’t a break until it’s consolidated and he was able to do the same to Knaff in the following game.

It stayed tight after that, but Statham was broken again later in it for the set to go Luxembourg’s way.

Statham continued fighting through the second set, but Knaff played some of the best and most consistent tennis of this weekend and didn’t give Statham an opportunity to find a way back into the match.

Luxembourg will play in a World Group I playoff next year, while New Zealand team will have a World Group II playoff.

Reflecting on the day, Sitak said he was proud of what the team achieved during this tie and he explained his selection choices for Sunday.

“The doubles, we were very heavy favourites,” Sitak said. 

“Everyone on our team plays really good doubles, and Ajeet and Finn just got the job done, they played really well, like they did all week. 

“I had to change the composition because I wanted Rubin to play the deciding match, knowing how much experience he has. 

“He's been there before so many times and knowing that he is the one to do it.”

The biggest selection decision of them all was to go with Loutit in the first singles, rather than KP Pannu, who had a good three-set battle against Knaff on day one and Sitak regards this as the biggest call he made.

“But Jack delivered,” Sitak said. 

“I had full trust in him, his abilities, the way he competed out there, and the way he played, it was unbelievable. 

“That was a top 100 level match, you see that level at the ASB Classic, first, second round, it was exactly the same. 

“Jack just was a little bit better in big moments and you can see how good he is going to be for our Davis Cup, because he rises to the occasion, and he loves the crowd, he feeds off it, and he plays even better with it, so I think he's going to be a massive asset for us in the future.”

Having gambled and won twice, Sitak was left with his joker to play, the New Zealander with more Davis Cup wins than anyone else has ever had and who continually played at levels well beyond his ranking since his first appearance in the completion in 2005.

“I had full confidence in Rubin, full trust that he could do it again,” Sitak said.

“He did it so many times before, but this time unfortunately, he couldn't. Alex was playing really well. He stayed calm. He did what he had to do. He had a really good game plan

“We tried to change it up a bit throughout the match, to try to break him down somehow, but he just never crumbled. 

“Rubin gave it all out there, you could see how much he was fighting for every point. But Alex was just a little bit better today.”

Despite this loss, Sitak fully believes in what this team can achieve and where they can get to, which is a place in the World Group Finals. 

“It's a very disappointing ending to an unbelievable tie, and we just have to learn from it and come back stronger next time,” he said. 

“This just means we're one more tie away from that World Group, that's the goal we had, we're going to have to take that extra step and still get back to that World Group, which I keep saying I believe we can get to with this new team.”