NIGEL SI­MON

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

nigel.si­mon@guardian.co.tt

Host T&T’s chances of pro­mo­tion from their Bil­lie Jean King Cup Amer­i­c­as Zone Group Three Tour­na­ment Qual­i­fiers were halt­ed in a 2-1 de­feat against un­beat­en Bar­ba­dos in their fi­nal Group A match at the Na­tion­al Rac­quet Cen­tre, Or­ange Grove Road, Tacarigua on Fri­day.

Start­ing the day need­ing a 3-0 sweep of Bar­ba­dos to­geth­er with a Ba­hamas win over Ja­maica by a sim­i­lar mar­gin, the T&T team of (cap­tain and play­er/coach An­naleise Rose, Aal­isha Alex­is, Char­lotte Ready, Jor­dane Dook­ie, and Yolande Lea­cock saw their hopes lift­ed when Dook­ie won the first set against Bar­ba­di­an Ser­e­na Bryant in the open­ing tie of the best-of-three clash in stun­ning style, 6-0.

How­ev­er, Bryant then turned things around and won the next two sets to put Bar­ba­dos ahead 1-0 and vir­tu­al­ly end the lo­cals hopes of qual­i­fi­ca­tion as a top two fin­ish­er in the five-team round-robin pool.

T&T’s dis­ap­point­ment was con­firmed in the next out­ing when Lea­cock was swept aside by Gabrielle Leslie 1-6, 3-6 be­fore Dook­ie and vet­er­an Rose avoid­ed the clean sweep by beat­ing Han­nah Cham­bers and Cherise Slo­combe in the Dou­bles, 6-3, 6-2.

With the win, Bar­ba­dos end­ed with a per­fect record of 4-0 at the top of Pool A while Ja­maica who edged past Ba­hamas in their clash 2-1 end­ed in the run­ner-up spot with a 3-1 record with T&T third at 2-2 and Ba­hamas, fourth with a 1-3 mark, and An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, bot­tom of the ta­ble with­out a win.

In Group B, Cos­ta Ri­ca de­feat­ed El Sal­vador 3-0 in the clash of un­beat­en teams to take the top spot with a4-0 record to their ri­vals 3-1 mark ahead of to­day’s cross-over semi­fi­nals with the top two teams from Group A while St Lu­cian end­ed in the third spot at 2-2 and will meet T&T in the fifth placed play­off. Bermu­da was 1-3 and end­ed in the fourth spot while Aru­ba was win­less.

Fri­day’s re­sults

Pool A

Bar­ba­dos 2 bt T&T 1

Ser­e­na Bryant bt Jor­dane Dook­ie 0-6, 6-4, 6-4

Gabrielle Leslie bt Yolande Lea­cock 6-1, 6-3

Han­nah Cham­bers/Cher­sie Slo­combe lost to Jor­dane Dook­ie/An­neliese Rose 3-6, 2-6

Ja­maica 2 bt Ba­hamas 1

Ade­o­la Greatorex lost to Syd­ney-Nicole Clarke 3-6, 4-6

Na­jah Daw­son bt Si­mone Pratt 6-3, 6-3

Na­jah Daw­son/Ade­o­la Greatorex bt Syden-Nicole Clarke/Tatyana Madu­abuchuk­wu 6-3, 6-2

Pool B

St Lu­cia 3 bt Aru­ba0

Jes­si­ca Eu­dovic bt Dan­na Nunez 6-4, 6-2

Meg­gan William bt Jel­syvette Kay­lyn Croes 6-3, 3-6, 6-4

Jes­sia Eu­dovic/Iyana Paul bt Mali Baroud/Dan­na Nunez 6-2, 6-4

Cos­ta Ri­ca 3 bt El Sal­vador 0

Lu­cia Gal­le­gos bt Michelle Irigoyen 4-6, 6-2, 6-0

Nicole Al­faro bt Sara Cruz Boni­la 3-6, 6-3, 6-3

Al­li­son Blan­co/A Cordero bt Daniela Aguilar/Sara Cruz Boni­la 6-0, 7-6(5)

Fi­nal stand­ings

Pool A

Teams*P*W*L*Match­esWon*match­es­Lost

1. Bar­ba­dos*4*4*0*10*1

2. Ja­maica*4*3*1*9*3

3. T&T*4*2*2*6*6*

4. Ba­hamas*4*1*3*5*7

5. An­tigua& Bar­bu­da*4*0*4*0*12

Pool B

1. Cos­ta Ri­ca*4*4*0*12*0

2. El Sal­vador*4*3*1*9*3

3. St Lu­cia*4*2*2*6*6

4. Bermu­da*4*1*3*2*10

5. Aru­ba*4*0*4*1*11