Still winless after the round robins, the Hong Kong B16U trio of Kelvin Lam, Lui Shing Fung, and Chau Kwan Lam finally opened their account with a hard-fought, 2-1, victory over Pakistan at the Junior Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Qualifying to secure a place in the upper bracket of the positional playoffs.  HK next faces Indonesia in the run-in for the 9th-12th place consolations. [Full Results]

The winner of the Hong Kong-Indonesia match will go on to meet either Korea or Malaysia in a playoff for outright 9th place.

With Kelvin Lam having to stand down from yesterday's outing against Pakistan due to a lingering stomach ailment from the previous day, Chau Kwan Lam took over at the two spot against Faizan Khurram but was defeated in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0. Next up, Lui Shing Fung quickly fell behind by a set against opposing number one, Heera Ashiq (ITF 1165), before steadying himself to win the next two sets, 6-2, 6-1, to pull the territory back on level terms.

Needing to win the deciding doubles just to avoid the 13th-16th Place Playoffs, Lui Shing Fung and Chau Kwan Lam, who teamed up to win last year's CRC Open School Boy's doubles, managed to carve out a 7-6(5), 7-6(5), victory to put Hong Kong in the top bracket of the positional playoffs at the expense of Pakistan.

In the round robin stage earlier this week, the HK team, unfortunately, suffered successive defeats against the third-seeded Kiwis, No. 6 Philippines, and then Malaysia in the final group match.

Hong Kong's JDC Captain, Michael Lai, reports from India: "New Zealand was a very strong team and all their players were equipped with a big serve and big forehand. But our players still had chances against them, they just couldn't stay up the whole time. At times, their level of play was too up and down. But they all worked hard and gave it their best."

"Against Malaysia, Raymond [Lui Shing Fung] played much better than the previous day against Alcantara, as he managed to neat Los Santos, who has a ranking of 227. In the doubles, even though the boys gave away too many free points, especially on the serve and returns, they never walked away from the task at hand and still tried their best," he added.

Earlier in the quarterfinals on Thursday, (1)Australia, (2)Japan, and (4)India all posted 3-0 victories to advance to the semifinals, while (7)Chinese Taipei beat (3)New Zealand in the deciding doubles after Huang Liang-Chi (ITF 129) had produced a tie saving win against Kiwi number one, Ben McLachlan, 6-3, 7-6(3).

Some of the highest ranked players in Delhi this week include 2008 Aussie Open Jr Championship semifinalist Yuki Bhambri of India (ITF 5), Francis Alcantara of the Philippines (ITF 73), Huang Liang-Chi of Chinese Taipei (ITF 129), Noh Sang-Woo of Korea (ITF 197), Maverick Banes of Australia (ITF 198), Ben McLachlan of New Zealand (ITF 203), Malaysia's Juan Antonio Los Santos (ITF 227), Japan's Yasutaka Uchiyama (ITF 325), Thailand's Adirek Khundarnpinitvon (ITF 392), Uzbekistan's Jakhongir Jalalov (ITF 466), Cao Guan-Yu of China (ITF 531), Indonesia's Louis Theodor (ITF 854), and Denis Yevseyev of Kazakhstan (ITF 907).

The best-ranked Hong Kong player competing in Delhi this week is Kelvin Lam (ITF 1236).

With reference to the latest release dated April 28, there are currently 22 Asian players ranked inside the world's Top-500 on the ITF Combined Junior World Rankings List that are eligible for Junior Davis Cup call up. Unfortunately, only 14 of them are in Delhi. As for the remaining eight, including world No. 3 and reigning Australian Open champion, Bernard Tomic, their participation in arguably one of the world's biggest junior team competitions is sorely missed.

According to ITF figures, the number of participating teams has steadily grown from an initial 44 at the inaugural event in 1985 to the present day total of approximately 170 teams.*

The only time a team from Hong Kong successfully negotiated its way to the JDC World Finals was in 2001, when a Jack Hui-led contingent starring Brian Hung at number two singles finished in second place at the Asia/Oceania Qualifying. At the subsequent World Finals held in Santiago, Chile, the HK duo went to battle against the clay kings from Spain, Argentina, Brazil, etc, and yet still managed to bring home an unprecedented world Top-10 finish.

This year's Junior Davis Cup World Finals will be held in St. Luis Pitosi, Mexico, later in September.

Results
2008 Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas
Asia/Oceania Qualifying, New Delhi
28 Apr – 3 May 2008

GROUP 2 (Round Robins)

Day 1 (Apr 28)

(3)NEW ZEALAND defeated HONG KONG   3 – 0
R-1 Barret Franks (NZL) d. Kelvin Lam (HKG) 6-2 6-3
R-2 Ben McLachlan (NZL) d. Lui Shing Fung (HKG) 6-1 6-1
R-3 Sebastian Lavie/Ben McLachlan (NZL) d. Kelvin Lam/Chau Kwan Lam (HKG) 6-2 6-1

Day 2 (Apr 29)

(5)PHILIPPINES defeated HONG KONG   3 – 0
R-1 Leander Lazaro (PHI) d. Kelvin Lam (HKG) 6-3 6-2
R-2 Francis Alcantara (PHI) d. Lui Shing Fung (HKG) 6-2 6-1
R-3 Francis Alcantara/Akio Sy (PHI) d. Kelvin Lam/Chau Kwan Lam (HKG) 6-4 7-5

Day 3 (Apr 30)

MALAYSIA defeated HONG KONG   2 – 1
R-1 Marcus Chee (MAS) d. Kelvin Lam (HKG) 1-6 6-4 6-2
R-2 Lui Shing Fung (HKG) d. Juan Antonio Los Santos (MAS) 6-2 7-5
R-3 Marcus Chee/Juan Antonio Los Santos (MAS) d. Lui Shing Fung/Chau Kwan Lam (HKG) 6-2 6-4

Day 4 (May 1)

9th-16th Place Playoffs

HONG KONG defeated PAKISTAN   2 – 1
R-1 Faizan Khurram (PAK) d. Chau Kwan Lam (HKG) 6-2 6-0
R-2 Lui Shing Fung (HKG) d. Heera Ashiq (PAK) 2-6 6-2 6-1
R-3 Lui Shing Fung/Chau Kwan Lam (HKG) d. Heera Ashiq/Samir Iftikhar (PAK) 7-6(5) 7-6(5)

* Number of teams includes both boys and girls