Davis Cup : Flach, Seguso Pull It Out to Keep U.S. Hopes Alive

Ken Flach and Robert Seguso, two points from defeat, rallied to win a three-hour doubles match against Boris Becker and Andreas Maurer Saturday to salvage American hopes in their Davis Cup quarterfinal with West Germany.

The Americans, needing a victory to stay alive after the West Germans had won Friday’s two singles matches, outlasted their opponents, 6-2, 6-8, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, before 11,000 spectators at the Red Tree Courts in Hamburg, West Germany.

“We believe in ourselves. We have a shot at winning this thing!” said Flach, who was Seguso’s teammate while the two played at Southern Illinois.

The United States, runner-up to Sweden in last year’s final, still needs to win both reverse singles today to move on to the next round.

On Friday, Becker had defeated Eliot Teltscher, 6-2, 6-2,6-3, and Hansjoerg Schwaier had beaten Aaron Krickstein, 2-6, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1, 8-6.

The winning team advances to the semifinal in October against Czechoslovakia.

Becker, 17, and his 27-year-old partner, looked to clinch a two-day victory when they led, 5-3, in the fifth set and needed only two more points.

But Becker was unable to capitalize on his next serve, and the Americans reeled off four successive games for the victory.

Americans John McEnroe, ranked No. 1 in the world, and Jimmy Connors, ranked No. 4, decided to skip the Davis Cup this year after refusing to sign a good-behavior pledge required by the U.S. Tennis Assn.

At Sydney, Australia, Paraguay forged a 2-1 lead over Australia as Victor Pecci and Francisco Gonzalez shocked Paul McNamee and Mark Edmondson, 6-3, 8-10, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

The visitors need to win only one of today’s reverse singles matches to move into the semifinals. Pecci plays McNamee in the first match, Gonzalez then follows against John Fitzgerald.

Sweden’s Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd defeated India’s Vijay and Anand Amritraj in a four-hour doubles match at Bangalore, India, that included a 40-game set.

The Swedes won, 21-19, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, to take an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five event.

Britain gained an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Switzerland in a European Zone B Davis Cup semifinal at Eastbourne, England, when John Lloyd and Colin Dowdeswell defeated Heinz Gunthardt and Jacob Hlasek, 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

This followed Jeremy Bates’ 6-0, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 victory over Gunthardt in a match that was postponed from Friday because of rain.

Ivan Lendl and Tomas Smid beat the Ecuadorean team of Ricardo Ycaza and Martin Aguirre, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4, at Guayaquil, Ecuador, to give Czechoslovakia an insurmountable 3-0 lead.