The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DORAL Park, Miami — Although the Bahamas lost 5-0 to Venezuela in the first round of the American Zone II Davis Cup tie, player/captain Marvin Rolle said he was pleased with the performances of Spencer Newman, Philip Major Jr and Justin Lunn.

Together, the quartet gave it their best shot against the No.2 ranked Venezuela in the zone.

The tie was decided on Saturday in the pivotal doubles when Rolle and Newman lost 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 to Louis David Martinez and Jordi Munoz-Abreu.

On Friday in the opening singles, Major Jr had a four-set marathon, losing to Venezuela’s top seed Ricardo Rodriquez and Newman fell 7-5, 6-0, 7-6 (5) to No.2 seed Luis David Martinez

But in the reverse singles on Sunday, which was relegated to best-of-three instead of best-of-five sets, Lunn lost 6-0, 6-2 to Ricardo Rodriquez and Major Jr took Jordi Munoz-Abreu to the wire, losing 6-7 (8), 6-4, 6-3.

“Today, Justin played and got his feet wet in singles,” Rolle said. “He played well, even though the score was what it was. The guy he played was an experienced player. He wasn’t able to last that long out there. But for the first plying singes, I thought he did a great job.”

As for Major Jr’s match, Rolle said one or two calls here and there and it could have gone either way.

“He played well. That’s all we could ask for the Bahamas,” Rolle said. “Everything we go out there, no matter what the score, you have to keep fighting until the end and that was what we did.”

The loss was force the Bahamas to win in April in the second round to avoid getting relegated to zone III next year. But Rolle said he’s confident that they can get the job done.

“PJ showed that he’splaying well. Spencer just need to get out there a little more. The same with me. To be playing at this level, you have to playing a lot of matches,” Rolle reflected. “Spencer is a great player, but he doesn’t have any matches. Wee just have to get those matches in and we will be right there because the scores were close.”

Rolle said they would like to get Baker Newman back on the team because he’s playing matches just about every week at Vanderbilt and he’s mentally tough. If they can’t, Rolle said they will work with what they have.

When asked to comment on the calls that went against the Bahamas, Rolle said anytime you are playing a Davis Cup team on their home turf you can expect to get the calls against you. He said that’s a part of Davis Cup and you just have to put it behind you and play point for point.

Major loses in three sets

“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 favor, but what can I do.”

Major, who was invited to join the team to play in the number two spot after Baker Newman was unavailable, won his first set in a tie breaker just as he did his opening single on Friday. But it seemed as if that hurt his chances the rest of thee way as some critical calls were made against him that he and Rolle argued, but to no avail.

In the second set, Major got a break for a 2-2 tie. Munoz-Abreu broke back for a 3-2 lead, but Major broke again for a 4-4 tie. Munoz-Abreu got the final break to go up 5-4 and he held serve for the 2-0 lead.

And in the third set, Munoz-Abreu got the first break to take a 2-1 lead and he broke again for the 6-3 win.

Lunn lost in two sets.

After he was denied the opportunity to play in doubles with player/captain Marvin Rolle on Saturday, Lunn finally got a chance to play in the first reverse singles. He got of to a shaky start and couldn’t 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 at 40-30 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.