BAHRAIN continued to struggle last night on the second day of play in Group II of the 2018 Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Zone, being played at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) hard courts in Isa Town.
The tournament hosts suffered their second successive 0-3 defeat, this time against Sri Lanka, in Pool ‘D’ of the preliminary round. After losing with a similar score to Indonesia on opening day, yesterday’s result ended the Bahrainis’ chances of promotion to Group I in next year’s Fed Cup play.
The Indonesians were amongst the other victorious teams yesterday, along with New Zealand, Singapore, Pacific Oceania and Malaysia.
The 14 participating nations have been divided into four pools of play for this first stage of the Fed Cup. At the end of a single round-robin, the winners of each pool will play-off against one another (A1 v C1 and B1 v D1) to determine the two nations who will advance to Asia/Oceania Zone Group I in 2019.
In Bahrain’s loss, Safa Safar bowed to Sri Lanka’s Savini Jayasuriya in straight sets 0-6, 0-6 in rubber one. Nazil Nader Redha then also had a 0-6, 0-6 result against Nethmi Himashi Waduge.
In rubber three, Redha and Safar teamed up to face off with the Sri Lankan tandem of Janali Manamperi and Anika Seneviratne, but the Bahrainis were once again scoreless in a 0-6, 0-6 defeat.
In the other Group ‘D’ series, Indonesia remained unbeaten following a comfortable 3-0 triumph over Pakistan.
Aldila Sutjiadi got things started with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Sarah Mahboob Khan and then Beatrice Gumulya followed suit with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Ushna Suhail. The duo of Deria Nur Haliza and Jessy Rompies then completed their team’s sweep with a 6-1, 6-0 win against Mahin Qureshi and Suhail in rubber three.
In Pool ‘A’, New Zealand got their tournament campaign off to a winning start after cruising to a 3-0 win over Lebanon.
Katherine Westbury dominated rubber one with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Nancy Karaky. Jade Lewis made it two for the Kiwis with a 6-0, 6-0 result against Hoda Habib, and then Lewis partnered up with Emily Fanning to beat Karaky and Habib 6-1, 6-3 in their doubles clash.
In Pool ‘B’ yesterday, Singapore claimed a 2-1 win over Kyrgyzstan in their first appearance of the competition.
Charmaine Shi Yi Seah and Stefanie Tan won their respective singles assignments. Seah beat Saara Kunakunova 6-2, 6-4 and then Tan overcame Ksenia Palkina 6-1, 6-3. Kyrgyzstan, however, managed to fight back with a doubles win, with Kanykey Koichumanova and Palkina beating Singapore’s Lynelle En Tong Lim and Tammy Tan 6-1, 6-3.
In Pool ‘C’, Pacific Oceania remained unscathed so far in the competition following their 3-0 victory yesterday over Oman. Malaysia beat Iran 3-0 in the other divisional fixture.
Carol Youngsuh Lee got her Pacific Oceania team right on target with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Maryam Al Balushi in rubber one. Abigail Tere-Apisah followed suit with a hard-earned 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 win over Fatma Al Nabhani.
Steffi Carruthers and Tere-Apisah then completed their sweep after winning their doubles assignment against Al Balushi and Aisha Al Suleimani 6-0, 6-1.
In Malaysia’s win, Theiviya Selvarajoo beat Iran’s Shahrzad Banisaeid 6-4, 6-0 in rubber one before Suhana Sofia defeated Kimia Rahmani 6-2, 6-1.
Jawairah Noordin and Sofia were then 6-0, 6-0 winners against Sara Azaddoost and Rahmani to the overall win.
Matches continue today until Saturday at BTF. Action is scheduled to get underway at 10am.