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Ellina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
THE Zimbabwe Davis Cup tennis team rose above the challenge to upset Turkey 3-1 in the Europe/Africa Group II first round at Harare Sports Club yesterday ensuring they retain their spot in the Group in the process.

The hosts sealed their victory yesterday when the pair of Takanyi Garanganga and Benjamin Lock beat Tuna Altuna and Cem Ilkel 7-5, 6-3  in the doubles having taken a 2-0 lead on Saturday.

Zimbabwe put up an impressive performance from day one with Lock and Garanganga winning their singles matches.

On Saturday, Lock, who came in as Zimbabwe’s number one, beat Turkey’s number two player Altug Celikbilek 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 while Garanganga defeated 6-4, 7-5 to put Zimbabwe in a comfortable position ahead of yesterday’s matches.

Both Garanganga and Lock played some good tennis, managing to take crucial match points yesterday.

It was an emotional moment for the Turkish team when Zimbabwe were awarded the winning point that’s saw them taking the second set 6-3 to wrap up the match after Lock’s serve hit Altuna’s feet and they felt otherwise as they protested to the chair umpire.

The match had earlier on been suspended for 2hours 20minutes due to the rains that pounded Harare yesterday morning with Zimbabwe leading 7-5, 2-2 (40-15).

Lock said it was unfortunate the match had to end that way but was thrilled they managed to take their first tie at home.

“I feel incredible. Obviously it’s an extremely weird way to end a Davis Cup tie and to finish like that. But you know in our defence the Turkish players stands very close to the lines on the serve to shrink your space, it’s a tactic that they do.

“And on a match point like that I am going for the hardest serve I can possibly hit and… I missed the serve barely by a couple of centimetres and he was standing right there. And it’s very unfortunate that it ends like this.

“But that’s just one point compared to three matches and I think the bottom line is Takanyi and myself played really well over this weekend and we outplayed them at home and we put ourselves in good positions to win and things like this happen.

“I am just honestly thrilled for the country to win, our first time to progress in the Euro/Africa Zone Group II and I am just so happy,” said Lock.