Pacific Davis Cup tennis team promoted to group 2

Tuesday 21: The Pacific Oceania Davis Cup team has qualified for play in the Asia/Oceania group 2 next year after beating host country Syria in the group three competition at the weekend.

Wins by Michael Leong and the doubles pair of Brett Baudinet and Cyril Jacobe saw the team home, 2-1 against Syria.

The Pacific Oceania Davis Cup team, get promoted up to group 2 with Sri Lanka.

The Pacific team started the day on the back foot against Syria when Juan Langton

was beaten by Hayan Maarouf 6-0, 6-4.

Leong then stepped on the court and played some great tennis to beat Syrian’s number one player Issam Tawil 6-0, 6-3.

Baudinet and Jacobe then played the deciding doubles match and played well to beat Hayan Maarouf and Roy Radwan 6-0, 6-4.

The pair formed a great combination and never looked in trouble against the Syrians.

Earlier in the tournament, the Pacific Oceania team topped their pool. A great comeback doubles win by Baudinet and Jacobe saw the team home win over Lebanon in the final match of pool play.

Juan Langton played a brilliant match to beat highly rated Jicham Zaatine 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the opening singles.

Lebanon number one Karim Alayly then got his revenge on Michael Leong from their match in Fiji four years ago beating the Solomon Islander 6-4, 6-3.

For the first time at the tournament it came down to the doubles decider.

Brett Baudinet and Cyril Jacobe began slowly losing the first set 6-1.

They pulled back in a thrilling second set to clinch it in a tiebreak and then go on to win the third set 6-4. Earlier in the tournament, the Pacific team beat Tajikistan (3-0) and Singapore (by the same score). - Ace