The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ 3-member team could surely use some help from last year’s team at this week’s Fed Cup Americas Zone One tie at the Paraguayan Yacht and Golf Club in Lambare, Paraguay.

Playing in their second match in Group B of the five-day competition on Thursday, the Bahamas got blanked 3-0 by Brazil.

The shutout came after the Bahamas opened play on Wednesday with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Colombia.

In yesterday’s matchup, rookie Iesha Shephard got to play in the first singles match, but she lost 6-0, 6-0 to Paula Cristina Goncalves of Brazil.

That was followed by Nikkita Fountain, who fell victim by the same score to Teliana Pereira.

Fountain and team captain Larikah Russell, who have played well together in doubles, went down 6-2, 6-2 to the Brazilian team of Gabriela Ce and Laura Pigossi as the Bahamas suffered a disappointing 3-0 decision.

Their performance came after losing 2-1 to Colombia on Wednesday.

In that tie, Russell lost 6-0, 6-2 to Colombia’s Catalina Castano in her singles match, while Fountain went down 6-1, 6-1 to Mariana Duque-Marino.

Fountain and Russell, however, teamed up to win the doubles 6-1, 7-5 over Castano and Duque-Marino.

The Bahamas will play their final match in the round robin against Ecuador today.

Both teams will enter the tie winless at 0-2.

If there’s any consolation, Ecuador has not won any match against Colombia or Brazil.

While the Bahamas and Ecuador will be battling for the final two positions, Colombia and Brazil will take the top spot in the cross-over to play the top teams coming out of Pool A to determine who will be promoted to the World Group II playoffs in April.

The nation in 2nd place in Pool A will play-off against the nation in 4th place in Pool B, the two nations finishing in 3rd place will play-off against one another.

The two losing nations will be relegated to Americas Zone Group II in 2015.

Last year in El Salvador, the Bahamas’ team of Simone Pratt, Kerrie Cartwright, Danielle Thompson and Russell as the player/captain made history by winning the Americas Group II to advance to Group One.

However, Pratt, Cartwright and Thompson all were unavailable to compete this year.

Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association president Derron Donaldson said they had anticipated not making the trip as a result of the unavailability of the top players.

But he admitted that based on the penalties and sanctions that they would have been faced with, it was in their best interest to still send a team.

Without Pratt, who is injured, and both Cartwright and Thompson, who have school commitments in the United States, the Bahamas is hard pressed to make a respectable showing this year in Paraguay.

While Fountain returned to the team after missing last year’s trip, this is the first appearance for Shepherd, the rising young star, who stunned Fountain in the BLTA’s December Invitational to earn her berth on the team in the absence of two of the top three players.

Thompson was the only member of the missing trio who played in the tournament in December at the National Tennis Centre. She took care of Shepherd in two straight sets to win the title.

The Bahamian players, none of whom have a ranking or even an International Tennis Federation computer point, are playing against players who are all ranked in the top 1,000 in the world, some of whom are in the top 200.