The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DORAL Park, Miami: While Venezuela had already secured the tie in Saturday's pivotal doubles at the American Zone II Davis Cup tie, the Bahamas' latest additions to the team put on a show for the fans on Sunday in the reverse singles.

Reduced to a best-of-three instead of the best-of-five sets, Justin Lunn finally got a chance to display his skills as a handicap player, losing 6-0, 6-2 to Ricardo Rodriquez and Philip Major Jr took Jordi Munoz to the wire, only to end up on the losing end 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 in what turned out to be one of the most keenly contested battles in the five-match tie that started on Friday.

With the two victories, Venezuela completed the weekend with a 5-0 win over the Bahamas and they guaranteed at least a berth in zone II for next year. The loss will force the Bahamas to win their next tie against the loser of Bolivia and El Salvador in order to determine where they will end up next year.

"It was a battle," was how an exhausted Major described his match. "I just did not win. It was a great match. He played well. I played well. It just came down to certain points here and there. Again the calls were not in my favour, but what can I do?"

Major, who was invited to join the team to play in the No.2 spot after Baker Newman was unavailable, won his first set in a tiebreaker just as he did his opening singles on Friday. But it seemed as if that hurt his chances as some critical calls were made against him as the match progressed that he and Marvin Rolle, the player/captain, argued, but to no avail.

In the second set, Major broke for 2-2, Munoz broke back but Major broke serve again for 4-4. Munoz got the final break to go up 5-4 and he held serve to tie the match. In the third set, Munoz got the first break to take a 2-1 lead and he broke again for the 6-3 win.

After he was denied the opportunity to play in the doubles with Rolle on Saturday, Lunn finally got a chance to play in the first reverse singles. He got off to a shaky start and could not get on the scoreboard, although he had a chance in the final game. At advantage, Rodriquez hit a short volley that was out of range for Lunn.

In the second set, Lunn got on the scoreboard when he held serve to 30 for a 1-0 lead. Rodriquez, however, got the first break of the set to go up 2-1 and he broke again on advantage to go up 5-2 before holding serve to seal the deal.

"It was amazing feeling. I was just a little bit nervous because you have the whole team on your back and you want to make everybody happy," Lunn said. "But overall, it felt good having the team and the fans pushing you. I didn't want to give up on any balls. It was a great feeling. I loved it."

After he didn't play the doubles on Saturday, Lunn said he didn't do anything to stay fit and that showed in his start in the first set. But he said it showed that he still have the ability to play at this level.

Lunn was named to the team to replace Kevin Major Jr, who was unavailable because of school commitments.