Darian King and Haydn Lewis always said they weren’t worried about going five sets.
Probably because they never had intentions of playing them.
Barbados’ Davis Cup duo won’t be concerned with the rest of their Group II tie either, having wrapped up an unassailable 3-0 lead without dropping a single set against Paraguay following yesterday’s 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 doubles victory at the Wildey Tennis Centre.
It capped what will surely be one of the most memorable moments in the sport, with the win over Juan Crosa and Gustavo Ramirez clinching a third successive straight-sets victory for the jubilant hosts.
The series triumph also assures the recently promoted Bajans of their stay in Group II of the Americas Zone for 2013, and advances them to the semis – where they await the winner of the Mexico-El Salvador tie.
“They are both great teams, especially when they play at home,” said Lewis of the prospect of playing either team.
“At least we have the reassurance that after winning this match we will not be demoted from Group II [so] we have nothing to lose. Of course, if we could make it all the way to Group I, that would be great but we are not putting expectations to be there.”
The early 3-0 cushion now allows the home team to rest their two ATP-ranked pros, who are certain to give way to Anthony Marshall and Seanon Williams for today’s reverse singles.
This was after Lewis put Barbados in position to wrap up the tie with a day to spare by quickly finishing off the last set of a 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 win over Daniel Lopez in the continuation of their singles match earlier.
But he and King appeared just as swift in dismissing their overmatched guests, having failed to drop even one service game, far less face a single break point.
So dominant was their performance that the ballyhooed Bajans dropped just six points on serve for the entire first set while waiting until the ninth game to see a deuce against their serve.
And it was the only time it happened all match.
King even made light work of that rare anxious moment, producing a pair of huge first serves which forced two weak returns – both of which Lewis put away at net to close out the set 6-3.
It was the story of an authoritative serving effort, which saw the customarily “soft-serving” King actually start the game with an easy hold at love.
“We just needed to hold serve and keep the pressure on their service games,” said non-playing captain Kevin Yarde.
“Doubles is that kind of game [because] typically it’s just one break you need to win the set.”
And that’s exactly what happened as the Bajans’ extremely strong net game forced Ramirez into a pair of forehand errors that gave the hosts a break to go up 5-3 in the opening set.
With Crosa refusing to play at the net, Paraguay were lucky not to have surrendered more service games as Ramirez was left to deal with the cat-like Lewis and King.
But King eventually broke through in the ensuing second with the score tied at three, hitting a series of blistering backhand returns before Ramirez slammed the racquet in the ground when he double-faulted to give Barbados a 4-3 lead.
They didn’t have to wait so long in the third set to get the break, with Lewis and King pouncing on a series of “weak” groundstrokes to take a 3-2 lead off Crosa’s serve.
Lewis then closed out the contest with two successive service winners before serve and volleying for a winner at match point.
It was almost identical to Lewis’ earlier singles win, when the crafty southpaw benefitted from a controversial overrule from the chair umpire to break a visibly frustrated Lopez and take a 4-3 lead.
The hometown boy surrendered just one point the rest of the way, holding at love before cranking up a pair of aces on the last game of the match for the straight-sets win.
“I haven’t yet come off of cloud nine,” said Yarde. “It was a little strange at first because we usually play away from Barbados, but to have the crowd behind us instead of against us was a whole different feeling.”
