Beating China was always going to be difficult for Ireland's Davis Cup team and, after losing both day one singles, it's almost impossible to see the them advancing to a play-off for World Group I qualification in February.
The opening match saw Peter Buldorini, the Italian born 21-year-old whose mother hails from Carrick-on-Shannon, making his Irish debut against Yunchaokete Bu, the world number 74 who has featured in all the Grand Slams. Buldorini is several hundred places lower in the ATP rankings.
Buldorini made a decent start, winning a long opening point and holding serve to love. However, he was broken to trail 2-1 and the nearest he got to breaking back was at 3-2.
Bu played a remarkable shot when, with his back to the net, he hit it through his own legs and Buldorini hit the simple smash into the net to lose the game rather than go to deuce. The Chinese star took the set 6-4 and, without too much bother, ran through the second 6-1.
Irish captain Conor Niland felt that his player had performed well against really strong opposition.
"Obviously 74 in the world, Peter 21-years-of-age and starting out at the Futures level, has been about 650 but sitting at about 1000 now," he told RTÉ Sport.
"So to jump to that level from the Futures level is tough and on your Davis Cup debut it's a tough ask, but I thought he played really well, made it very competitive.
"’Bu was impressive and has had a really good hard-court swing in the States July and August.
"We weren’t maybe banking on that one but I thought Peter played really well."
On paper, Michael Agwi had more chance of beating Yi Zhao but he was out of sorts and a bit tetchy in an opening set which he lost 6-1.
Agwi trailed 3-2 in the second before we had the first Irish break of serve of the day. A fierce exchange of ground strokes ended when Agwi pounded a crosscourt forehand and Zhao could only return limply into the net. Both Agwi and the crowd were energized, feeding off each other, especially when he took the set by winning a tie-break 7-1.
However, that was as good as it got for Agwi. Indeed, it quickly got a whole lot worse, as Zhao raced through the third set 6-0 to leave Ireland needing a miracle on Sunday to win the tie with one doubles and potentially two singles matches to be played.
Niland felt that Zhao's consistency was impressive across the entire contest.
"Always felt like Michael had a chance and, yeah, just disappointing that he didn't get maybe more of a foothold in the third set early.
"Did well to get there, I thought Zhao was impressive."
"To be honest, the level Zhao had the first three or four games, it didn't intimidate Michael but it was tough for Michael to match that," he added.
"Obviously he (Zhao) ran away with the first but Michael did a really good job of digging in and seven points in a row in the tie break, from one-love down to 7-1, is but he can do that, he’s very streaky, he’s got some unbelievable shots.
"His opponent played three very solid sets and Michael played one and a half very solid sets."
