In the second match on Friday, it was time for Kornel Bardoczky to step on court to face young Egypt Sherif Sabry. An Hungarian win in this rubber would make the host's situation very comfortable - on the other hand, even a loss against Sabry would just lead to the "normal after-Friday" score of 1-1 ties.
Bardoczky started very well, played strong and gave Sabry no chance to get into the game - which included breaking the Egyptian in the second game of first set. But instead of keeping this pace up, Bardoczky decreased pressure on Sabry and got punished by the re-break in third game for that. Sabry was confident now and played very well in first set. Both players had no major problems in the first set winning their own serves, but suddenly, Badoczky faced triple break point in the eleventh game. A beautiful passing shot by Sabry converted the second, so that Egypt served for the set at 6-5 score. Sabry lead 40:30, which meant set point, but he could not convert it. Additionally, Bardoczky broke him and forced him to play the tie-breaker. Until court change, the tie-break was completely levelled, both players won their points at serve easily. But like in the set, Sabry lost his game and just scored one more point after the change. 7:4 in the tie-break - Sabry wasted just too many opportunities, though he looked better to me and gave a great fight for his country.
The first set broke Sabry's spirit while Bardoczky gained much confidence: after a reasonable start, Sabry committed too many errors and gave away second set by 1-6. Third set started very similar with Sabry facing seven break points against his serve in the second game. But he managed to win this game and played much better now again. Nevertheless, Bardoczky was just too experienced this day - and Hungary's #1 player just did what he needed: he scored the break in the seventh game of third set and though there were some crucial situations in the following games, he saved this lead to win the third set 6-3.
Sabry showed great fighting spirit and pride to play for his country, but to be honest, he was just a bit too weak and unexperienced to have a chance against Bardoczky, who just showed his best tennis for a very few moments. Hungary now lead 2-0 and was able to win the tie in the doubles.