King leads Barbados to historic victory over Pakistan in Group II tie

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Barbados’ top-ranked player, Darian King, convincingly won both of his singles matches to lift them to a 3-1 victory over Pakistan in their Davis Cup Group II tie here yesterday.

In what was the first meeting between the two countries, King, who made the main draw of the 2017 US Open, defeated Muhammad Shoaib in Saturday’s opening singles match in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0, in just under one and a half hours.

Pakistan fought back through their veteran Aqeel Khan, who turned back strong resistance from Kaipo Marshall to emerge victorious 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 and even the best of five rubber at 1-1.

However, King then teamed up with his longtime doubles partner, Haydn Lewis, to beat Khan and Aisam Qureshi 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, to put the home side in front once again.

King, who has a career-best ranking of 106 but has slipped to outside the top 1,000 after being plagued with injuries, then sealed the contest for Barbados when he disposed of Yousaf Khalil 6-3, 6-0, in the reverse singles yesterday to give his team an unassailable 3-1 lead.