Bicknell says team raring to go in Davis Cup tie against Lebanon
NATIONAL tennis star Blaise Bicknell says the team is feeling relaxed and confident ahead of this Friday’s start to their Group Two Davis Cup play-offs against hosts Lebanon.
The championships, which will be held September 15-16 in Jounieh, Lebanon, will see Bicknell, along with Rowland “Randy” Phillips, John Chin, Daniel Azar, and David Gorldsmith flying the nation’s flag.
The Mel Spence-captained team is expected to face a tough contest against the Lebanese whose team will likely include Benjamin Hassan and Hady Habib, ranked 250th and 404th in the world, respectively.
However Bicknell, who is the highest-ranked Jamaican player at 430 in the world, said they have nothing to fear from the Lebanese because he, along with Phillips who is the country’s number two player, has been playing some excellent tennis this past summer and so they are confident and raring to go.
“Everybody is good because we have been working hard and we are very focused on the goals, because the first match is on Friday and the draw is on Thursday and so we are all looking forward to it,” said Bicknell.
“Randy is in very good shape and he is playing well, along with myself and so too as the rest of team, and so we are excited and ready to get going,” he addedd.
Bicknell, who is Jamaica’s number one player, shared that the Lebanese players are very good but believes that once his team sticks to the game plan and executes properly in each match, they should be able to come out victorious.
“It is going to be very tough because these guys are good — because they are both ranked higher than me and Randy — but I believe that we can overcome them by fighting hard all the way to the end.
“I have been in the form of my life recently because up to last week in Turkey I had a very good week where I won three rounds of matches in an ATP tournament there. I lost in the final of an ATP Challenger in Lima, Peru, a few weeks ago and I won a tournament in Canada, and so I have moved up 400 spots in the world rankings in the last two months,” Bicknell said.
