TENNIS – BAHRAIN hosts the 2024 Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group V tennis tournament from today, featuring 15 senior men’s national teams from across the continent.
Matches are to be played at the Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) courts in Isa Town.
The participating squads are composed of four or five players each, and they will be battling it out in singles and doubles matches.
The draw for the competition’s opening round was held yesterday at InterContinental Bahrain in Manama.
Hosts Bahrain are in Pool D for this stage of play alongside Yemen, Bangladesh, and Tajikistan. Pool A – the only group with three nations – includes Guam, Brunei, and Nepal; Pool B consists of Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Macau, and the Philippines; and Group C features Laos, the Maldives, Bhutan, and Northern Mariana Islands.
BTF president Shaikh Abdulaziz bin Mubarak Al Khalifa was in attendance at the draw ceremony, along with BTF secretary general Fuad Al Rowaie and representatives from each participating national team.
The top squad from each pool will advance to the final phase to battle for two available slots for promotion to next year’s Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group IV. The top team in Pool A will play the number one team from Pool D, while the first-placed squads from Pools B and C will face off.
The competition at the BTF is scheduled to continue until Saturday.
The kingdom’s national team are composed of top talents Hasan Abdulnabi, Yusuf Qaed, Elyas Abdulnabi, and Faris Al Toobli. Abdulkarim Abdulnabi is the Bahrain captain.
“We on the Bahrain team are greatly looking forward to representing the kingdom in the Davis Cup,” Al Toobli told the GDN. “This is a very prestigious tournament, and it is unique being a team event.
“We have been practising intensively every morning and afternoon, six hours a day, to prepare. We feel confident technically and physically and we want to perform well and give our best for our country, and for ourselves as well.
“For sure we will try to get the best result, which is to qualify for Group IV. We’re going to take things step by step and do our best every day.”
Al Toobli, who is playing in the Davis Cup for the third straight year, said that the hosts expect tough competition from the visiting delegations.
“All the countries that are here have the same goal as us – they all want to qualify to the next group,” said the 18-year-old. “There will be no easy matches and no easy opponents. Everybody came here well-prepared, and that’s a challenge we are looking forward to. We will do our best, nobody is going to give it to us easy, and we will have to work for it.
“We are determined to raise our country’s flag to the highest of highs.”
Bahrain first participated in the Davis Cup in 1989 and have made four appearances in Asia/Oceania Group II. Last year, also competing in Group V, they lost to Myanmar in their opening contest but then won against Bhutan and Brunei. They played with a team then of Shadi Kallel, Hasan Abdulnabi, Elyas Abdulnabi, and Al Toobli.
This year’s Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group V is one of several high-profile global tennis competitions being held in the kingdom over the course of several weeks this month and next.
There are also three International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour Juniors calendar tournaments – including two J30 events already held and one J60 competition taking place next month – as well as the Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group III, which will take place right after Davis Cup action from Monday to Saturday next week.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))