The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

TEAM Bahamas got off to a positive start with a successful first tie in Zone B of the Americas Group II of the Fed Cup.

The team of Kerrie Cartwright, Danielle Thompson, Simone Pratt and Sierra Donaldson opened play at the Centro National de Tenis de la FET, Guayaquil, Ecuador with a 2-1 win over Bolivia yesterday.

Thompson took to the court first with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Daniela La Fuente Strassburger and Cartwright followed to clinch the tie when she defeated Noelia Zeballos 6-0, 6-3.

Strassburger and Zeballos rebounded to win doubles with a 7-5, 6-2 over Pratt and Donaldson.

Zone B includes the Bahamas, Bermuda, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras and Trinidad & Tobago. The seven teams will be placed in two different pools with the winners of each pool advancing to the playoffs to determine which team will advance to the Americas Zone Group I in 2019.

Zone A includes Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.

Host Mexico already clinched the other spot by beating Peru 2-0 in Zone A that was completed in Metepec, Mexico, on June 23.

The team is captained by Marvin Rolle, who recently served in that capacity when he led the men’s Davis Cup team in Costa Rica to a 2-1 win over the host nation to advance out of the Americas Zone III and back into Zone II for 2019 along with Honduras on June 2.

Following the Fed Cup, the team will head to the Central American and Caribbean Games.

In 2017, the Bahamas won just one of its four ties at the Americas Zone Group II event in Panama City, defeating hosts Panama 2-1 in their tie. They fell 3-0 to both Costa Rica and Peru and was tied 1-1 with Barbados when their tie was abandoned due to rain.

“Even though the dynamics have changed, our expectations is for them to go over there and do their best,” BLTA President Darnett Weir said prior to the tournament. “We’re missing Larikah [Russell], but I’m quite sure that this group will get the job done.”