Davis Cuppers pleased with display in tough loss to Greece

Jamaica’s tennis players, Blaise Bicknell and Rowland ‘Randy’ Phillips, say they had nothing to be ashamed of after going down 3-2 to a tough Greece team in their Davis Cup Group Two playoff in Athens last weekend.

Blaise, who is ranked 1,217 in the world, and Phillips, rated at 1395, jumped out to a 2-0 lead against the Greeks after they recorded singles wins over Petros Tsitsipas and Markos Kalovelonis, respectively on the opening day of the tie.

However, the host nation fought their way back into the match on the second day as Tsitsipas, who is ranked 808 in the world, and Kalovelonis, 781, defeated Blaise Bicknell and Phillips 6-2, 6-3 in the doubles event to reduce the deficit to 2-1.

The Greece team then levelled the tie 2-2 as Aristotelis Thanos, who is ranked 1,074 in the world, beat Bicknell 6-4, 6-4. The home side secured the victory after Tsitsipas defeated Phillips in the deciding match.

The defeat means that the Jamaicans have now been relegated to Group Three. Bicknell, however, was delighted with their performance.

“It was a very good performance from us because Randy and I played extremely well,” said Bicknell, who is the country’s number-one-ranked tennis player.

“The experience will help me a lot going forward because I know where I need to get to, and the next time I face home fans in a facility like that, I will be prepared for it,” he said.

“There was a lot of pressure because we were in the stadium with spectators cheering loudly for the home team, and it was like 15 of us Jamaicans there, and so it wasn’t easy with everyone cheering against you,” he said.

Bicknell added that they are now very focused on getting themselves back into Group Two playoffs as quickly as possible.

Phillips stated that despite the defeat, he was very pleased with the way they carried themselves throughout the tournament.

“I am disappointed at the end of it because I think that we are a team that is good enough to win against Greece,” said Phillips. “We put ourselves in a good enough position after the first day, but it just didn’t work out for us on the final day,” he said. “It is clear that we are at a high level, and we are playing at the same level as the players that we are competing against, and so we have to use this to continue to improve on our all-round game.”