Hungary - Egypt: Sebo Kiss - Karim Maamoun 6:3 6:4 6:1

The first weekend in April 2006 - the traditional time for Davis Cup. As "my country" India faced Pakistan at home, which was slightly too far away for a weekend trip, I decided to travel to Hodmezovasarhely, a small town near the Serbian and Rumanian border in South-East Hungary. Hungary faced Egypt in Europe/Africa group II there. Of course, the host country was the favourite in this tie, but Egypt with 300-something ranked Karim Maamoun had competetive players, too.
In the first match, Sebo Kiss from Hungary faced Egypts number one Maamoun. Of couse, if you want to have a proper chance in any Davis Cup tie, your #1 needs to beat the opponent's #2 on day 1 - and that was exactly the task for the Egypt player to fulfil. But Sebo Kiss started great breaking Maamoun in the first game of first set. Both players served well then for a while, but at the end of first set, both players had several break points. Finally, Maamoun was broken again in the ninth game of the set, serving at 3-5 score behind to loose first set.
But the Egyptian recovered from the first set easily: he broke Sebo Kiss in the first game of second set, but struggled too much afterwards. In the fourth game, a very stunning one with many great rallies, he already faced some break points but managed to keep the lead. In the sixth game, Sebo Kiss had triple break point at 0:40 score. Maamoun thought a ball to go out of bounds, but it definitely touched the line and tied the score - 3-3 now. Again, both players acted nervous at the end of the set. First, Maamoun had a great opportunity having break point against the Hungarian serve at 4-4 score, then Sebo Kiss had a double one in the next game when Maamoun was serving at 4-5 behind. Kiss did just better this day and converted the second break - and set - point to win the second set by 6-4.
You may sum up the third set in just one sentence: after a reasonable start, Maamoun completely lost his game and was rolled over by Sebo Kiss, who won 6-1. Hungary's #2 showed a great match and gave his country a very important lead in this tie.