Davis Cup team will be ready for Lebanon – Coach
Published:Sunday | February 12, 2023 | 1:39 AMOrane Buchanan - Staff Reporter
FOLLOWING JAMAICA’S exciting 3-2 victory over the Estonia at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre in Kingston last weekend, the Mel Spence-coached team will now shift its attention to world number 47th-ranked Lebanon in Group II of the Davis Cup from September 15-17.
On the back of their victory on home soil, the Jamaican team of Blaise Bicknell, John Chin, Daniel Azar, Rowland Phillips and Jacob Bicknell has moved up nine places to 60th in the latest rankings.
Mel Spence, head coach of the team, said despite the disappointment of playing Lebanon on their soil, he believes his group is more than up for the task.
“There’s a lot of excitement, yes, we’ve never played them before but also disappointed because we’re going to be playing them in Lebanon but nevertheless our guys are up to the task,” said Spence.
Ahead of the highly anticipated clash with the Lebanese group, Spence added that apart from playing on the collegiate circuit, his group will be participating in “lower-level professional tournaments” prior to their summer training sessions geared towards upping the ante ahead of the September clash.
“We will be looking to intensify our training before the build-up of the tie as these players will be playing at their respective colleges and then over the summer time we’re going to get together and then do a bunch of training sessions and go to some lower-level professional tournaments,” he confirmed.
FOCUS ON DOUBLES
Spence said there were areas the team could be more dangerous in, especially in the doubles department, and will be working assiduously to strengthen the already-solid singles group.
Last Sunday, the Jamaicans had gone 2-0 up in their Davis Cup Group II qualification tie against Estonia through victories from Phillips over Kristjan Tamm (6-1, 6-1), and Blaise Bicknell over Kenneth Raisma (4-6, 6-4, 6-0), but were pegged back to 2-1 in the doubles after the team of Chin and Azar was beaten by Raisma and Jurgen Zopp, 6-1,6-2.
Fortunately, Bicknell would return in the reverse singles to beat Tamm 7-6 in a first set before the latter defaulted after striking an official with a racket he had thrown.
“We’re going to be working a lot more on doubles. I think we could have done better in that area. The young guys that we put in got fantastic experience and gave a good account of themselves, but we can do a lot of improvement there. Of course, in singles, our players are playing well but they can return and be a lot more aggressive.”