Ghana lead Azerbaijan 2-0 in Davis Cup

Accra (Greater Accra), 16 February 2000

The national Tennis team, the Golden Rackets, on Wednesday took a commanding 2-0 lead against Azerbaijan in the Euro-Africa Zone Four Davis Cup tennis competition at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Former Ghana's number one seed, Frank Ofori and new entrant Gunther Darkey won against Nidjat Ramazanov and Emin Agaev 6-1 6-1 and 7-6 6-4 respectively in the singles match.

Ofori, 29, who is not ranked in the International Tennis Federation's (ITF) books, put up a splendid performance to dispose off his18 year-old inexperienced Azerbaijanian Ramazanov, who is making his first appearance at the Davis Cup.

Ofori, who was nervous at the beginning, double-faulted but he quickly overcame that and broke his opponent's opening serves to race into an early lead.

After gaining his composure, Ofori, who now teaches Tennis in Belfast, Ireland, depended mostly on his powerful service causing his younger opponent to make mistakes in most cases.

"I was a little nervous at the very beginning but I managed to overcome it to play some good tennis", Ofori said after his game.

He said he did not allow his opponent to play his style of tennis but forced him to adapt to his (Ofori) game plan.

About the chances of the country moving into Zone three, he said he is very optimistic but added, " I think I have to leave that to the big man up there to decide".

Ramazanov attributed his defeat to the scotching sun, which he said he is finding it difficult to adjust.

Darkey also overcame any early scare by his well-composed opponent Agaev to score a hard 7-6 6-4 win.

Backed by a few tennis fans, Darkey surprised every body with some excellent serves to scale over his opponent.

In the other matches, Algeria beat Liechtenstein 2-0, Mauritius defeated Cameroon 2-0 and Andorra also disposed off Sudan in two straight games.

Algerians, Nourredine Mahmoudi and Abdelhak Hameurlaine won the game 6-1 6-0 and 6-3 6-0 respectively over their Liechtensteinian counterparts Andreas Schweiger and Alex Risch while Jean-Marcel Bourgault Du Coudray and Kamil Patel of Mauritius beat Otolo and Lionel Kamajou of Cameroon 6-1 6-4 and 6-3 6-3.

In the final singles match of the day, Jean Baptiste Poux and the highest ranked player in the competition Joan Jimenez, beat Mandour Rushdi Mohammed Abdalla and Gaffar Elsadig nour Eldin Elsadig of Sundan 6-0 6-1 and 6-0 6-1 respectively.

The doubles matches come off later in the day.

Eight countries, Ghana, Azerbaijan, Mauritius, Cameroon, Sudan, Liechtenstein, Algeria and Andorra are taking part in the five-day tournament. The top two teams at the end of the competition qualify for Zone Three.

GRi