Pacific Oceania Davis Cup Team Earn Promotion to Group III in 2016

In a heart stopping final day in Isa Town in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Pacific Oceania Davis Cup Team superby coached and captained by Gilles de Gouy, have earned promotion to Group III for 2016. With the score levelled at 1 rubber all after the singles, as it had on two previous occasions during the round robin earlier in the week, it came down to the seasoned unbeaten doubles team in 2014 and 2015 of Brett Baudinet and Daniel Llarenas to ensure the spoils and take Pacific Oceania to a 2-1 win.

The match over the UAE’s two singles players, Al Awadhi and Al Blooshi, could not have been tighter with Pacific Oceania prevailing in a 2 set, 1hour 44m cliff hanger 7-6 (6), 7-5 to the absolute delight of the Pacific Oceania Team courtside. Both teams had ample break point chances in the opening set with the Pacific Oceania Team converting only 2 out of 7 to their opponent’s 2 out of 6. The serving of the Pacific Oceania team, that had been one of their main weapons earlier in the week, seemed to desert them somewhat at 48% in the 1st set though this improved substantially to 72% in the 2nd set with overall a high 10 double faults in the match.

Earlier in the day the experience of Cyril Jacobe proved too match when he defeated Mahmoud Nader Al Blooshi 64 36 64 in the opening rubber. He set the scene by breaking serve in the opening game of the match but then traded service breaks before taking out the 1st set. His opponent then took the only break point chance in the 2nd set to level the match before Cyril Jacobe showed his class after dropping serve in the final set to subsequently come back and break serve twice to take out the match and what was to prove decisive for the Pacific Oceania team.

Then in the 2nd singles rubber, Heve Kelley, playing in his 1st Davis Cup Tie came up against an extremely determined UAE # 1 Omar Al Awadhi, who earned a 60 64 win. Kelley had difficulty settling in the 1st serve with only a 50% 1st serve percentage and serving 4 double faults. His opponent took advantage of this and converted 3 of the 5 break point chances that he had in a 1st set that lasted only 23 minutes. Services breaks were traded early on in the 2nd set before UAE broke serve for the 2nd time to take the match and level the rubber 1-1