Jabor al Mutawa and Mubarak Shannan al Zayed won their rubbers and sparked Qatar to a 2-1 victory over Jordan in the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group III at the My Dinh Complex in Hanoi, Vietnam on Tuesday.
This was the second victory for Qatar in Pool B achieved after nearly six hours on the court. The winners are holding the second spot in the five-team pool behind Kuwait, who defeated Saudi Arabia 3-0 in another match.
The winner of Pool A will play-off against the runner-up of Pool B and the winner of Pool B will play-off against the runner-up of Pool A to determine which two nations will be promoted to Asia/Oceania Zone Group II in 2019.
Jabor al Mutawa survived a tough call against Mousa Alkotop and posted a come-from-behind 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory in two hours and 21 minutes.
The Qatari was locked 2-2 in the second set after having lost the opening set at 4-6. Breaks in the fifth and seventh games put him 5-2 ahead. He then served out the set to make it 1-1.
In the decider, Mutawa again fell 2-3 behind. But he was a different player after 3-3. He pulled off breaks in the seventh and ninth games to seal the fantastic victory.
Zayed was not in any big trouble and carved out a smooth 6-2, 6-4 win in one hour and 10 minutes to put Qatar in assailable 2-0 lead.
In the doubles, Issa Shannan al Harrasi and Mousa Shannan Zayed had chances to complete a 3-0 victory. At the crucial stages, they could not gain the much-needed breaks and lost the rubber 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (2) in two hours and 19 minutes.
