Bermuda Junior Davis Cup Team in close nail biter with Aruba.

Bermuda’s Junior Davis cup team narrowly missed out on victory today against Aruba, losing in the doubles match by a third set tiebreaker. Tensions were high for Coach Mallory and his team, as the singles matches were split 1-1 and it all came down to the doubles match as the decider.

The day kicked off with singles matches, Tariq Simons was pretty evenly matched with his opponent Alexon Hessels of Aruba. He fought hard and had a chance to go up in the first set, but unfortunately, Hessels was the better opponent on the day.  Simons lost 7-5, 6-3 a respectable showing.

Trey Mallory was in a must win situation for Bermuda.  Mallory’s opponent Frederick Sydow is a seasoned junior player on the ITF junior circuit.  Mallory opened up strong and blew his opponent away in the first set 6-1.  Momentum changed in the second set Trey was tie at 3-3, dropped a game and was broken, Sydow went up 5-3 and looked close to winning the set. Mallory focused and fought back to win the second set 7-5, to clinch the singles match 6-1, 7-5 tying up the fixture and giving Bermuda a chance.

It all came down to the doubles to decide the outcome.   Redmond teamed up with Mallory. The first set was a tough one, Bermuda worked hard but lost it 6-3. The team knew it was now or never and Coach Mallory said “I told them to leave it all on the court, to dig deep and give it their all”. Redmond and Mallory came back to win the second set 6-4. The entire fixture was now to be decided on a tiebreak third set, unfortunately points just didn’t go Bermuda’s way with some unfortunate unforced errors, ultimately costing them the fixture.

Coach Ricky Mallory said ‘It was a hard pill to swallow today, we lost 2-1 against Aruba 3rd seed, but we had a legitimate chance to win the fixture.  Our team competed at their best, and pushed Aruba to their limits, it was anyone’s match, and unfortunately we were not successful. ‘

Tomorrow the team meets Dominican Republic, where they will be fighting for a top 5 finishing spot.

 

ARUBA (ARU-B16)ARUBERBERMUDA (BER-B16): 2-1

Time: Thu 30/03/2017 08:30
Draw: Junior Davis Cup (B16) – PLAY-OFF 1-8
Score: 2-1

 

Match overview
Order Event ARUBA (ARU-B16)ARU BERBERMUDA (BER-B16) Score Points     Duration
1 MS2
Alexson HESSELS Aruba
Bermuda Tariq SIMONS
7-5 6-3 1-0     1:55
2 MS1
Frederick SYDOW Aruba
Bermuda Richard MALLORY
1-6 5-7 0-1     1:25
3 MD
Alexson HESSELS Aruba
Frederick SYDOW Aruba
Bermuda Richard MALLORY
Bermuda Scott REDMOND
6-3 4-6 10-4 1-0     1:15
Statistics
  Points Rubbers Sets Sets % Games Games %
ARUBA 0 2 1 4 3   57.1% 39 34   53.4%
BERMUDA 0 1 2 3 4   42.9% 34 39   46.6%