THE SIDELINES : Bulgaria, China Gain in Tennis

Bulgaria and China took the lead today in their Davis Cup zone competitions while Romania and Britain split matches in their zone.

China won both single matches in Beijing and has a 2-0 lead over Indonesia in the Asia-Oceania Zone Davis Cup competition.

Xia Jiaping, China’s top player with a ranking of 624th in the world, struggled to a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Daniel Heyanto, Indonesia’s No.1 player.

Pan Bing of China then defeated Suharyadi of Indonesia 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3.

China needs one more victory Saturday or Sunday to advance to the world group qualifying round with seven other nations from four regional zones.

Bulgaria won both opening singles matches in Sofia and took a 2-0 lead over Greece in their Group 2 European Zone second-round Davis Cup match.

Milen Velev beat Giorgos Kalovelonis 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 and Ivan Keskinov defeated Kostas Efraimoglou 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.

Romania and Britain split the opening two singles matches of Friday.

Danny Sapsford of Britain beat George Cosac 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 in Bucharest in their second-round European Zone competition , then Florin Segarceanu beat Jeremy Bates in straight sets 7-5, 6-1, 6-1.