Encouraging results for Malta Davis Cup team in Athens

The team was led by ex—Malta Champion Gordon Asciak, the National Coach. Malta, for the first time ever beat Andorra 2-1. Denzil Aguis lost at the no.2 singles 1-6 2-6. Matthew Asciak had an excellent win over Jean Baptist Paux, Andorra’s no.1 player 7-5 7-6 and Asciak/Gatt upset the doubles team 5-7 7-5 6-3, in a 3 set thriller, the tie went on for nearly 7 hours .

Malta then faced Iceland, Bradley Callus, recovering from flu lost the no.2 singles 2-6 3-6. Matthew Asciak beat Iceland’s No.1 player 6-2 6-1 and Asciak/Gatt did extremely well to dominate the match 7-5 3-6 6-3. Mark Gatt playing his first ever Davis Cup, played a very important part winning the deciding rubbers with Matthew Asciak.

Malta for the first time beat Andorra and Iceland and the team spirit and support was a very important factor. Malta lost to Georgia 1-2. Callus lost to a very strong opponent 1-6 1-6 , Asciak beat the no.1 player from Georgia 6-3 6-4 and Asciak/Gatt lost the decisive doubles 2-6 4-6.

Both the Georgian players occupied high ATP ranking. Malta lost to Luxembourg 0-3. This result was expected as Luxembourg was led by Giles Muller, who 2 years ago beat Nadal and reached the quarter finals at the US OPEN. Asciak lost 2-6 3-6 but put up a good fight.

For Matthew this was an excellent week as he won 3 out of his 4 singles at the No.1 position. Malta finished in a very encouraging 6th position out of 12 teams. The level of this years Davis Cup was very high.

The Malta tennis Federation President, Dr. David farrugia Sacco, stated that these results were very encouraging, with The Malta Team beating both Andorra and Iceland for the first time.

This augurs very well for the 2011 tournament. The seriousness shown by the players have paid off dividends. Prior to the Davis Cup in Greece, the Malta Team had a 5 day training Camp at the Win Tennis Academy in London, through the initiative of the Malta Tennis Federation.

It goes without saying that none of this would be possible without the financial backing of the Federation sponsors GO, GASANMAMO INSURANCE and WILSON.”