11th Davis Cup for Baudinet

Local tennis star Brett Baudinet and his team Pacific Oceania competed in the Davis Cup on Wednesday.

Group III Pacific Oceania will be going up against United Arab Emirates in the Asia/Oceania Group B Round Robin.

The Davis Cup being held in Dubai at the Aviation Club is going to be a challenge for the Pacific Oceania team, but they are preparing themselves to play in the intense heat.

“We have been training in the extreme heat here in Dubai,” said 18-time winner Baudinet. “Matches in the Davis Cup usually start around midday, but due to the heat matches are to commence at 4:30pm which is closer to 33 degrees.”

The obvious heat is not the only thing that will keep the team on their toes. The team was moved down to Group III after several years in Group II and the challenge is to regain their previous place.

“The top two teams out of eight in each group are promoted up and the bottom two are demoted down. So as the top ranked team/country, along with Hong Kong, our obvious goal is to regain our place back up in Group II,” says Baudinet.

“To do this we must first be ranked in the top two out of our four-team pool, for which round robin matches are played over the first three days commencing today. We would then move into the round robin playoffs against the other top two countries from the other pool.

“If you are in the bottom two of your pool you then go into the relegation playoff pool.”

Pacific Oceania represents 16 of the Pacific islands in a single team. This is due to the fact that Pacific nation countries are small in comparison to the rest of the world teams and are therefore allowed to combine their talents to make a single team.

The countries represented in the Pacific Oceania team for this Davis Cup tie are from Guam, Tahiti, Fiji, and the Cook Islands.

According to Baudinet, “Our goal is for two of our boys to focus on the two singles matches and myself and Danny from Guam to focus on the doubles, which is our specialty. Each draw consists of two singles and a doubles match, so it is the best of three matches.”

Baudinet has a long history representing Cook Islands in tennis.

“This year will be my eleventh year representing the Cook Islands in our Pacific Oceania Davis Cup team. I am the longest representing member to date. I’m very proud to be representing our country and hope some day soon our youngsters will step up and take part in doing the same.”