With their Davis Cup Group Two play-offs tie locked at 1-1 against Barbados entering the final day on Sunday, Jamaica’s tennis players aim for two victories to close out the tie and secure the championship.

In the opening match at 11 am, Blaise Bicknell and Rowland “Randy” Phillips will face off against the Barbados duo of Darian King and Kaipo Marshall in their doubles match. Following the doubles, Bicknell, the country’s top player, will go up against Barbados’s number one player King, while Phillips, Jamaica’s number two player, will face the Bajans’ number two, Marshall.

In yesterday’s action, Bicknell provided the host with a dream start by defeating Marshall, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. However, the Bajans levelled the tie at 1-1 when King, ranked 547th in the world, defeated Phillips 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 in the second match of the day. Bicknell, the highest-ranked player in the championships at 319, expressed satisfaction with his performance.

“It was a good match, but I think I could have done some things better because there were times when I was trying to over hit and not relax,” he said. “However, I thought I played a great first and third set and got a comfortable win.

“I am happy for this win, and I am looking forward to tomorrow’s [today] match against Darian King. It is going to be very tough because he is a veteran player with a lot of experience, but I am going to be ready for it.”

Bicknell dominated the first set, swiftly jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Despite Marshall reducing the lead to 4-1, Bicknell, in excellent form this season, fought back to win the next two games and the set. Marshall came out strong in the second set, securing a 3-0 lead. However, Bicknell rallied to reduce the lead to 3-2. Marshall, playing confidently, outplayed his opponent to win the set 6-3.

Bicknell dominated the final set, taking the match to a 5-0 lead. In fact, he produced four aces on his way to winning the final set quite easily.

Marshall expressed disappointment with his performance, acknowledging that he could have played much better.

“What I promised myself to do was to fight for every point, and I think that was what I did, but in the end, it wasn’t enough for me to win the match,” he said. “I didn’t think that I was playing my best tennis at the start of the match, so I am really upset with myself. However, I came in the second set, and I was feeling very confident, but in the third set, things just fell apart for me. However, there is still a long way to go in this tie, so we are not going to give up.”

In the second match, after losing the first set 6-3, Phillips fought back gallantly to win the second set. In the final set of the match, King ran out to an easy 5-0 lead. However, King, who was playing with an injured knee, grimaced in pain during the final set and was forced into calling a medical time out. Phillips took advantage of this as he went on to win five games to tie the score at 5-5. He came back to win the last two points and secure the victory.