Sleep-deprived Iran succumbed to the shock tactics of Hong Kong, who grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first round of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group II tie at Victoria Park last night.
Surprise package Michael Brown gave Hong Kong the perfect start when he beat Anoosha Shahgholi, who had to retire hurt trailing 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 4-0. Wayne Wong then gave the sparse crowd many jittery moments before defeating Iran's top-ranked player Ramin Raziani 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (2-7), 6-2.
While Iran were rushing from the airport to Victoria Park to meet the 5pm deadline for the start of their Davis Cup campaign, Hong Kong were preparing to greet them by changing their lineup. The SAR's nominated number one singles player Melvin Tong was replaced by Davis Cup debutant Brown, who has just qualified under the tournament's two-year residency rule.
Non-playing Hong Kong captain Derek Ling said Tong was injured. 'Melvin has tendinitis on his playing wrist. He felt it after a final training session on Thursday. There was no guarantee that he could have lasted the whole match and we decided to play it safe and replace him with Michael,' said Ling.
Iran were due to arrive on Wednesday, but a visa hitch saw them turn up only hours before the tie was due to start. No surprises then that the Iranian camp wore long faces.
'It is not fair that we have to play like this. It was not our fault that we got delayed. We applied for our visas a month ago at the Chinese Embassy in Teheran. We don't know why it took so long to process our applications for visas. They told us that it was because of the Chinese New Year,' said team captain Kambiz Derafshjavan.