Bahrain return to winning ways

Manama : Bahrain ranked 107 in the world defeated Kyrgyzstan ranked 124th 3-0 yesterday on the fourth day of the action in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Davis Cup matches in Pool A of the Asia/Oceania Group IV on the hard courts of the Bahrain Tennis Federation Courts at the Bahrain Polytechnic in Isa Town.

In the opening rubber, Hassan Abdulnabi defeated Farhad Urumbaev 6-2, 6-0 in 44 minutes to give the Kingdom the lead.

The next rubber lasted a shade over two hours as Yousif Qaed battled to victory in three sets 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-4 to secure Bahrain’s maiden victory at this season’s championship.

With victory secured, Abdulkarim Abdulnabi and Elyas Abdulnabi made it a clean sweep with a 6-2, 7-5 win in the doubles after 70 minutes of play.

The first set was comfortably won, but at one stage Bahrain was trailing 1-4 but came back strongly to level at 4-4 and then clinched the second set with a break in the 11th game for a 6-5 lead and served out the match.

Hassan Abdulnabi said, “The team have played well despite the defeats as the first three days were tough, I played two singles matches against Saudi Arabia and Cambodia which went to three sets and a doubles against Myanmar in strong winds on the first three days. I was glad we won the two singles matches so I could take a break from the doubles and looking forward to our rest day today before the classification match on Saturday.”

Saudi Arabia ranked 111 are tied with Cambodia (101) with three wins from three after a 3-0 win over Myanmar (120).

In Pool B action, Oman (122) made it four wins from four after a 3-0 win over Tajikistan, while Singapore (107) are second following a 3-0 win over third placed Mongolia (126), Bangladesh (112) completed the day’s programme with a 2-1 win over Irag (106).

11 teams are playing round-robin which concludes today in their respective groups, with the promotion places decided by the winners of a play-off match between the Pool A winners and Pool B runners-up and the Pool B winners against Pool A runners-up to Group III for the 2018 edition of the Davis Cup tomorrow, along with three classification matches.

Bahrain’s team are coached by its non-playing captain and 64-match Davis Cup veteran Essam Abdul A’al and comprises Yousif Qaed, Hassan Abdulnabi, Abdulkarim Abdulnabi and Elyas Abdulnabi.

Bahrain first entered the Davis Cup in 1989 and have four times been in Group II of the regional zones.