Barbados go down 3-2 in Davis Cup relegation playoff

Barbados has been relegated after losing their Davis Cup BNP Paribas Zone Group 1 relegation playoffs against Dominican Republic 3-2 at Centro Nacional De Tenis Parque Del Este, Santo Domingo.

 

A fifth Rubber was needed to decide the winner between the two teams, which were locked at 1-1 after Day One and then Dominican Republic won the Doubles and moved up 2-1 after Day Two.

 

Day Three also had its fill of excitement as Barbados’ Darian King levelled the Tie when he won his rubber against Victor Estrella Burgos yesterday.

 

After a close first that had to be decided by a tiebreak that King won 9-7 to take the set 7-6, it was a one-sided battle after that.King, who is ranked in singles 132, created an impressive 17 break points against his opponent, who is ranked 94 and converted seven of those to win the match in straight sets 7-6(7), 6-1, 6-1 in two hours and 11 minutes.

 

It was in the second set that King won 4 of 5 break points, though he was broken once as well, as Estrella Burgos never held his own serve during the set.

 

In the third set, King never gave up or even gave Estrella Burgos the opportunity of a break point.

 

With the Tie all levelled, Haydn Lewis took on Jose Hernandez-Fernandez in the fifth and final Rubber.

 

Lewis sent down four aces during the first set, but he was broken once which was enough for Hernandez-Fernandez to go on to close out the set 6-4.

 

In the second set, Lewis may have been shaken by the defeat in the previous set and his serve started to waiver with no aces and three double faults.

 

He, however, had three break point opportunities which he was unable to convert, while he was broken twice in the set to give Hernandez-Fernandez the 6-2 victory.

 

In the third set, Lewis bounced back to keep the Bajan hopes alive as he broke Hernandez-Fernandez twice and his big serve was back with two aces.

 

Hernandez-Fernandez managed to break back once, but it was not enough as Lewis won the set 6-4 to force a fourth set.

 

After sticking with Hernandez-Fernandez in the fourth set early, Lewis missed out on two break points and then was broken once by Hernandez-Fernandez.

 

Playing to stay alive, Lewis was down on his serve once again at 5-3 and managed to pull back from two break points to not only deuce the game, but also hold his serve.

 

But the momentum had swung the way of the host Hernandez-Fernandez, who easily held his serve without dropping a point to win 6-4 and the match 3-1.

 

This gave Dominican Republic a 3-2 victory in the Tie as they stay in Group 1 and Barbados gets relegated. (CG)