Battling Goodall can't salvage Davis Cup tie (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Battling Goodall can't salvage Davis Cup tie

8:42am Monday 9th March 2009 in

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BASINGSTOKE tennis ace Josh Goodall suffered double disappointment on his Davis Cup debut.

The 23-year-old lost both his singles rubbers as Great Britain were beaten by the Ukraine at the Braehead Arena, Glasgow The British number two was leading the team in the absence of top player Andy Murray, who was suffering a virus. Goodall played the opening match against Illya Marchencko on Friday and showed plenty of fighting spirit – but lost the match in three tie-breaks.

On Sunday, with the tie already lost, Goodall faced Ivan Sergeyev and lost 6-7, 3-6 in a three set game.

In between those games, Chris Eaton lost the second singles rubber on Friday to Sergiy Stakhovsky 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 and the doubles match saw Ross Hutchins and Colin Fleming beaten in five sets by Stakhovsky and Sergei Bubka 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 4-6.

It was a missed opportunity for Basingstoke-born Goodall, who is ranked 192 in the world, as victory against the lower ranked Ukrainian would surely have made him a safe selection for the next tie in September.

The Brit never really got into the game against Marchenko, battling back from 3-0 down in the first-set only to lose in a tie-break.

In the second set he was 4-0 down and once again forced it to a tie-break and looked set to square the game leading 5-3, only to give up the next four points and the set.

Goodall said: “It was really disappointing to lose this game as I really wanted to do well being my first game for Great Britain.

“It was an extremely close match, but I gave myself too much to do in every single set.

“I went down in the first and managed to come back to a tie-break. I went down big in the second set – and again I had to come back. In the third set, I started to serve better and I was holding my own.

He added: “I don’t think I tactically got it right today out there and that has ultimately cost me.”

Friday’s game did not get off to the start Goodall was looking for as he lost his first service game in a nervy start.

However, after missing a couple of break points earlier in the set, he broke back in game nine as the Ukrainian gave up three break points and served a double fault on the second of these.

The Brit then tied the set with his best service game so far as three aces took the score to 5-5.

Two games later and the players were into the tie-break, but it was the player ranked 224 that came out on top, coming from behind to win it 7-2.

That setback was further compounded when Goodall lost his own serve to love in the opening game of the second set and soon Marchenko had raced to a 4-0 advantage.

The Brit dug deep and won the next two games before squaring the set with his second break of serve in game 11.

Goodall then once again powered down the aces to set up another tie-break.

The home crowd were enjoying it and the match looked set to be all square after two sets when the Basingstoke-born player took a 5-3 lead in the tie-break.

Then his touch deserted him and the Ukrainian took the next four points and the set.

With games going with serve in the third set Marchenko led 6-5, leaving Goodall to serve to stay in the match.

He soon found himself 40-15 down and facing two match points, but two great serves got the game back to deuce.

From there the game was a titanic battle as the Brit saved a further three more match points to set up a third tie-break.

Unfortunately once again Marchenko made a slow start before coming back to take the tie-break 7-5 on his seventh match point.

On Sunday, Goodall had been due to face Ukrainian number one Stakhovsky but, with the match won, the visitors give Ivan Sergeyev a chance.

He is ranked 200 places behind his British opponent in the world rankings, but is in good form on the Futures Tour.

Once again the Basingstoke-born player lost his opening service game and took until the eighth game to level the set.

Unsurprisingly, the players headed for a tie-break, which Sergeyev dominated, taking a 3-0 lead before winning 7-3.

The Ukrainian got the first break of serve in the second set to lead 3-0 and, despite Goodall saving two match points in game nine, his opponent took the game and set 6-3 to make it a miserable debut for the British number two.