1 year ago
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JAMAICA’S DAVIS Cup team suffered its first defeat of the ongoing Group III qualifiers in Paraguay after losing to Bermuda on Thursday, and must now sweat on, not only beating the Dominican Republic today, but also hoping other results go their way.
Playing in Pool B of the Group III qualifier, Jamaica now lie second behind the Dominican Republic, who have been perfect thus far with three wins from as many ties, while Bermuda have a similar record to Jamaica but are ranked third, having won one less game.
Jamaica, who entered the fixture against Bermuda, riding high following 2-1 victories over Guatemala and Puerto Rico, lost by the same margin.
Prior to the game, Jamaica’s captain, Noel Rutherford, had said the difficulty with these close ties would be in trying to pull off wins in the doubles games.
As fate would have it, John Chin lost 2-1 to Daniel Phillips in the opening encounter, blowing him away 6-1 in the opening set. Chin roared back to win the second set 6-0, but was edged 6-4 in the deciding stanza.
Blaise Bicknell, who remains undefeated in singles action, wasted little effort and would level the tie with an emphatic 6-2, 6-0 victory over Tariq Simmons.
However, in the third and final fixture, the pair of Bicknell and Chin suffered a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to the Bermudan duo of Richard Mallory and Daniel Phillips.
Today, the Jamaicans go up against a Dominican Republic, who have beaten Bermuda, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico, losing just a single game, a three-set doubles humdinger against Guatemala.
The number 444-ranked Roberto Cid Subervi has been powerful for the Dominican Republic, while the number 622-ranked Peter Bertran has not given any quarter either.
The team looking for the second spot, Bermuda, may have an easier time of its tie against Puerto Rico, and Jamaica will hope this is the case.
If Bermuda win, Jamaica may finish third and would still qualify. However, should Puerto Rico win and Jamaica lose, the two will have the same number of wins vs losses, and would have to go to the scorecards to see who goes through, based on how many individual matches they have won.
English (US) ·