By Neto Baptiste
Captain of the Antigua and Barbuda Davis Cup team and former national player Cordell Williams believes that a day off just before the team’s third match against Guatemala may have broken the team’s momentum heading into their crucial Group IV promotion match.
Min an interview with Observer media following the team’s campaign at the tournament held in Trinidad, Williams said the team loss it’s rhythm after having won back to back matches against Cuba and the USVI.
“I think the day off we got that the momentum we had going we lost it. We could have beaten Guatemala in the doubles because we had a set point and the guys came up with a good volley and we just lost the volley by just the one service break, so I think we have done well. Guatemala beat Nicaragua so Guatemala and Puerto Rico are the two teams promoted to group three,” he said.
Antigua and Barbuda just missed promotion from Group IV to Group III following a 2-0 loss to Puerto Rico in their promotion match on Saturday.
Finishing second in Pool A of Group IV after winning two and losing one of their three matches, Antigua and Barbuda went under to the number one team in Pool B in their two singles clash.
In the first match, Cordell Williams Jr was defeated by 6-0 (six-love), 6-1 by Puerto Rico’s Marko Mesarovic while the country’s top seeded player, Jody Maginley lost his first match of the competition going under 6-1, 6-3 to Gabriel Evans.
Williams said the aim was to play for promotion and believes the players gave it their all.
“When we got here our plan was to do very good but we had a good start and we managed to finish second in our group and had a chance to be promoted to group three. However, we lost to Puerto Rico in both singles match but all in all, I think the guys did very well and so we’ll be planning or next year to be in a better position as we go forward,” the coach said.
Williams went on to reveal that he will be aiming for a much earlier start in the team’s preparation ahead of next year’s competition.
“By January I want to put a team together and start training early so that they will be in better condition because most of the guys play afternoon tennis so we need to try and get the guys out between 12 and 3 pm every day because that’s when they have to play, the hottest part of the day but it’s been a good experience. It’s our best run, it’s best run so far or since we started back Davis Cup,” he said.
Antigua and Barbuda’s team comprised Cordell Williams (Captain), Jody Maginley, Cordell Williams Jr, Rodaine Monelle and Ron Murrain.
