JAMAICA defeated Bermuda 3-0 in the Americas Zone Group Three Davis Cup Men’s Team Tennis Championship tie at the Costa Rica Country Club in Costa Rica yesterday.

The five-member Jamaica team left the island on Sunday to participate in the team championship that ends on Saturday.

The Jamaicans will play their next match against Antigua and Barbuda, starting today 10:00 am.

Rowland “Randy” Phillips defeated Gavin Manders in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 in the first singles, while Dimitri Bird made it 2-0 scoring a similar 6-3, 6-4 win over Richard Mollary.

The Jamaican doubles pair of Phillips and Marcus Malcolm defeated the Bermudan pair of David Thomas and Jenson Bascome in three sets, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

Former Jamaican top player Dominic Pagon is the non-playing captain for the team.

Apart from Jamaica and host Costa Rica, seven other teams will be participating in the Davis Cup Group Three tie — The Bahamas, Cuba, Honduras, Paraguay, Bermuda, Panama and Antigua and Barbuda.

The teams will be placed in two pools with “A” having four teams, and “B” having five teams. Matches will be played on a round robin format in both pools. The top-seeded nations are Paraguay and Honduras, who will be placed in different pools.

The semi-finals will see the winner of Pool “A” meeting the runner-up of Pool “B”, while the winner of Pool “B” will face the runner-up of Pool “A”. The two semi-final winners will move up to Zone Two competition in 2019.

Jamaica are playing in Pool “B” along with The Bahamas, Honduras, Bermuda and Antigua and Barbuda, while Pool “A” has Paraguay, Costa Rica, Cuba and Panama.

Jamaica are hoping to do better better this time around as they will be playing on hard court, as opposed to clay court which was used last year.