SANTIAGO, Sept 24: Olympic gold medallists Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu showed no mercy to a horribly outclassed Pakistan on Friday as Chile took a 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup World Group play-off (partly reported in Saturday issue) World number 18 Gonzalez, who was a gold medallist in the doubles at the Athens Olympics last summer, crushed Aqeel Khan 6-0, 6-0, 6-1 before Olympic singles winner Massu eased to a 6-2, 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 victory over Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi.

Gonzalez, claimed the first point of the tie in exactly one hour allowing the 988th-ranked Khan just one game.

“Gonzalez was very quick, and I could not play my game. His speed was impossible to match for me. I tried to do my best, but I could not do anything about it,” said Khan.

In front of 5,000 people, Khan won sympathetic applause when he managed to break the Gonzalez serve at 0-3 down in the third set.

But that was a brief moment of joy for the Asian.

He lost the first set in just 18 minutes with Gonzalez not losing a single point on serve.

“I am very happy about winning,” said Gonzalez.

“I was prepared for a much longer match, as it happens with an opponent that you dont know much about. Fortunately, things went easy for me, so I could wrap it up quickly.”

Qureshi, ranked 355 in the world, faded badly in the third set where he won just nine points against Massu.

“I did my best, gave my 100% and I hope my country is proud of me,” said Qureshi.

“The tie is still alive. We have a good doubles record, we lost only three of the last ten matches so I think we still have something to say on Saturday.”

Davis Cup World Group

playoff results:

Austria 1 Ecuador 1

Juergen Melzer (Austria) bt Giovanni Lapentti (Ecuador) 6-1 6-0 6-2; Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) beat Stefan Koubek (Austria) 5-7 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 7-5

Czech Republic 1 Germany 1

Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) bt Tommy Haas (Germany) 4-6 4-6 6-1 7-6 (11-9) 6-3; Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) bt Tomas Zib (Czech Republic) 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-4 6-2

Italy 1 Spain 1

Andreas Seppi (Italy) bt Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) 5-7 3-6 6-0 6-3 6-2; Rafael Nadal (Spain) bt Daniele Bracciali (Italy) 6-3 6-2 6-1

India 0 Sweden 1

Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) bt Prakash Amritraj (India) 6-4 6-4 6-4; Thomas Johansson (Sweden) leads Rohan Bopanna (India) 7-6 (7-3) 6-6

Switzerland 2 Britain 0

Roger Federer (Switzerland) at Alan Mackin (Britain) 6-0 6-0 6-2; Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) bt Andrew Murray (Britain) 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-4

Belgium 1 US 1

Olivier Rochus (Belgium) bt James Blake (U.S.) 6-4 7-5 6-1; Andy Roddick (U.S.) bt Christophe Rochus (Belgium) 6-1 6-2 6-3

Chile 2 Pakistan 0

Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) bt Ageel Khan (Pakistan) 6-0 6-0 6-1; Nicolas Massu (Chile) bt Aisam Qureshi (Pakistan) 6-2 7-6 (7-4) 6-1

Canada 1 Belarus 0

Frank Dancevic (Canada) bt Vladimir Voltchkov (Belarus) 5-7 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.—Agencies