HEAD coach of Jamaica’s tennis team Mel Spence said, while he was very pleased with Jamaica’s performance in the King Alarm Cup against a Caribbean all-star team on the weekend, there is still a lot of work to be done ahead of their Davis Cup Group Two play-off tie against Estonia in February next year.

Jamaica’s team of Blaise Bicknell, Rowland “Randy” Phillips, Daniel Azar and Nicholas Gore ended the championships five-all against their Caribbean counterparts at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre on Saturday.

However, the hosts secured the victory after winning 101 games in the sets compared to the Caribbean team’s 96.

The Caribbean all-star side consisted of Darian King of Barbados who was ranked 108 in the world in 2017. The other members of the team are Matthew Estwick from Barbados and Michael Major and Justin Robert, both from The Bahamas.

“I am very pleased with the team’s performance because I think that all the guys played well against formidable opponents and it was pretty evenly matched — but our guys came away with a victory as they played exceptionally well,” said Spence.

“I don’t want to say that we are a hundred per cent ready for Estonia in February because we still have a bunch of adjustments to do but I think that we are on the right track and on schedule as to where we want to be at this time.

“All the players are very fit but can we be fitter and can we make tweaks before February? Absolutely, we can. Fitness wise they are probably ahead of schedule right now, which is great for us, but there is always work to be done,” he added.

Blaise and Phillips both won their singles matches against King and Roberts, respectively. Azar defeated Major before losing to Estwick. Gore lost both of his games to Estwick and Major.

Spence said the Jamaican team showed a lot of character and determination throughout the tournament and that this sets them up well ahead of their clash with Estonia in the Davis Cup, which will be held from February 4-5 at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre in Kingston.

“Blaise played fantastic against Darian King and [in] his reverse match against Justin Roberts, so did Randy Phillips against both of those guys. Daniel Azar did very well coming away with a victory and a defeat in both of his matches, and Nicholas Gore had a good showing of himself too,” Spence said.

“I think that this is a great warm-up for the guys and excellent competition for them, and I hope that the Jamaican crowd appreciates the level of tennis that was played last weekend,” he went on.

Bicknell, who is the country’s number one-ranked tennis player, said he was happy with the team’s overall performance at the tournament.

“It is a very good tournament because I played very well in front of everyone in Jamaica. I am also very happy with the way that we played as a team because we got the win, and that was good for us,” Bicknell said.

“I didn’t play in Jamaica for about three years before this tournament and now I got to play this match against some really tough players and so now I am feeling really confident going into the Davis Cup tournament in February. I am just going to continue working hard and to maintain my fitness at the highest level because we all know that this Davis Cup play-off is going to be easy for none of us,” Bicknell asserted.

— Robert Bailey