TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA CAMBODIA continued to celebrate its dream appearance in the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group Four 2012 with a facile triumph against host Qatar at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, on Tuesday.

After Cambodia crushed Singapore 3-0 and young Qatar edged Myanmar 2-1 on the opening day, both clashed in the second fixture. The former, fielding Kenny Bun and Pannhara Mam, looked more than a match, walking through the rubber 3-0.

Mam defeated Jabor Ali Mutawa 6-2 6-3, encountering some resistance in the second set. No 1 Cambodian player Kenny Bun fired good service and strokes to rout Mousa Zayed 6-0 6-0.

In the doubles, Mutawa and Zayed defeated the Mam brothers, Pannhara and Vetu, to get some consolation.

For Cambodia, the Davis Cup debut means much more than figuring in the annual team event. It took painful efforts of decades by Yi Sarun, one of the three national players to have survived the savage killing by the Khmer Rouge in the late seventies, to root in the sport again.

It was Sarun’s dream to restart the tennis culture in Cambodian again. It was this year that the team was considered ready enough to take part in the Davis Cup.

After the victory, Pannhara commented: “It has been a dream come true for us so far.

Our No 1 goal is to go into the next group. It has been a good start and we hope to keep moving forward from here.

Tep Rithivit is the general secretary of the Cambodian tennis and is a huge source of inspiration for the entire team. “Rithivit is a big supporter for us. For two months, we trained hard under him after coming from the US.

“We’ve so much of history and there are a lot of supporters for us too. Our team has got a lot of talent and it is well aware of the targets. We just hope we can get those aims,” added Mam.

Qatari coach Amine Bustani was delighted with his team’s winning start. “We got a good start against Myanmar. But today we knew how strong our rival Cambodia is. There was a slight chance for Jabor in the second set. But it was a boys versus men contest.

“Still our aim is to try and go into the next round. As I feel, Cambodia looks like topping the pool. So for the second place in the group, we should be in contention along with Jordan and Singapore. It is not easy to win the remaining matches but let us hope for the best in the rest of the event,” the Qatari coach said.

TUESDAY’S RESULTS Pool BB CCammbodia beeat Qatarr 33--00 Pannahara Mam beat Jabor Ali Mutawa 6-2 6- 3 Kenny Bun beat Mousa Zayed 6-0 6-0 Pannahar Mam & Vetu Mam lost to Mousa Zayed & Jabor Ali Mutawa MMondayy’s rreesults Pool AA:: SSaudi AArrabia beeat Irraq 33--00 Fahad al Saad beat Ali Hashim 6-0 6-1 Omar al Thagib beat Ahmed Abdulhasan 6-4 6- 0Z aki Al Abdullah & Omar al Thagib beat Ahmed Abdulhasan & Ali Hashim 6-0 6-2 TTurrkkmmeenistan beeat BBahhrrain 33--00 Eziz Dovletov beat Yusuf E Qaed 6-2 6-3 Aleksandr Ernepesov beat Hasan Abdul Nabi 6- 4 6-2 Eziz Dovletov & Jamshid Ilmuradov beat Abdulla Mohamed & Yusuf E Qaed 6-2 6-2 Pool BB:: Qatarr beeat MMyyanmmarr 22--11 Jabor Ali Mutawa beat Ne Hnaung 6-2 6-3 Mouse Zayed lost to Phyo Min Thar 6-2 5-7 3- 6 Jabor Ali Mutawa & Mousa Zayed beat Nge Hnaung & Min Min 7-6(3) 7-6(4) CCammbodia beeat SSingapporree 33--00 Pannhara Mam beat Ng Hao Yuan 6-2 6-4 Kenny Bun beat Roy Alif Hobbs 6-2 6-1 Kenny Bun & Pannhara Mam beat Roy Alif Hobbs & Roham Kamdar 7-6(8) 6-3