JAMAICA’S tennis players were left disappointed and shocked after they were demoted to Group Three of the Davis Cup following their 2-3 defeat to rivals Barbados on Sunday at Eric Bell Tennis Centre in Kingston.

The Jamaicans started the final day of the two-day Group Two play-off with the tie at 1-1, needing to win two matches to come out on top.

However, the hosts got off to a very bad start after the team of Blaise Bicknell and Rowland “Randy” Phillips lost the doubles match to the Barbados pair of Darian King and Hyden Lewis 6-3, 4-6, 4-6.

The Jamaicans began the match solidly, winning the first set comfortably. However the Bajans fought their way back, outplaying the Jamaicans to capture the next two sets and win the match. Blaise, the country’s number one player with a world ranking of 319, levelled the tie for the host nation when he outclassed King, the Bajans’ number one, 6-1, 6-0 in 48 minutes.

The 31-year-old King, ranked 547th in the world, failed to match up to the big-serving Bicknell who produced seven aces to win quite easily.

However, in the deciding encounter Phillips went down 4-6, 6-1, 2-6 to Marshall in the match which was delayed for over an hour due to rain.

John Azar, the president of Tennis Jamaica, while disappointed with the results said the country’s players gave their all.

“You saw that these athletes put it all on the line and so it is obvious. And I feel it for them because they put in a very good week of work and good preparation, and it would have been great to see them getting a well-deserved victory,” he said.

Bicknell, almost at a loss for words, was very saddened by the team’s results.

“Of course I am disappointed because we left it all out there and we gave it everything that we had, but Barbados came up with something good at the end so they went on to win the tie,” he said.

Bicknell pointed out that the lack of options on the bench also led to the team’s demise in the tournament.

“I think that we didn’t have enough depth in the team because Randy [Phillips] ended up dead in the third set and so, unfortunately, we couldn’t have John Chin here as another option. But, Randy gave it his all and I am very proud of him,” he said.

— Robert Bailey