Clay­ton Clarke

Trinidad and To­ba­go lost to Guatemala on the sec­ond day of ac­tion go­ing down 0-3 in a Group A match up on Court 1 in the Davis Cup Amer­i­c­as Zone Group III Tour­na­ment at the Shaw Park Courts, Scar­bor­ough. The lo­cal ra­quet boys were go­ing for their sec­ond straight win but came up short against the top-ranked team Guatemalans. Play­ing the team which whipped Aru­ba in its open­ing tie, the lo­cal boys fell to the top-ranked Cen­tral Amer­i­cans as Liam Gomez lost in open­ing rub­ber in straight sets (2-6, 0-6) to Julen Uriguen. Na­tion­al cham­pi­on Yohansey Williams al­so went down in straight sets (3-6, 6-1) against the tour­na­ment's high­est ranked play­er Christo­pher Di­az-Fir­gueroa to lose the tie with one match re­main­ing. In the dou­bles en­counter Luke De Caires and Vaughn Wil­son pro­vid­ed lit­tle re­sis­tance to Wil­fre­do Gon­za­lez and Se­bastien Vi­dal and went down (6-3, 6-2). Trinidad and To­ba­go head coach Lennox Fran­cis said the lo­cal play­ers were out­played by the Guatemalans, fol­lowed his side falling 0-3 to the Guatemalans. In the open­ing game Liam Gomez was beat­en by Julen Uriguen 6-2, 6-1 and in the bat­tle of the num­ber ones, Yohansey Williams went down to the tour­na­ment's num­ber one ranked play­er, Christo­pher Di­az-Figueroa 6-3, 6-1 in front of a par­ti­san crowd. The Guatemalans com­plet­ed a per­fect day when Wil­fre­do Gon­za­lez and Se­bas­t­ian Vi­dal thumped Luke De Caires and Vaughn Wil­son 6-3, 6-2.

With the host a game down, their hope of up­set­ting the top seeds rest­ed firm­ly with the na­tion­al cham­pi­on Williams but just as Gomez, strug­gled with his first serve and was bro­ken five times in the match (Gomez was bro­ken six times). He did re­turn well against the big-serv­ing Figueroa Di­az but he was forced back from the net, as he con­stant­ly moved along the base­line and was nev­er re­al­ly able to find a rhythm. The hosts will play Hon­duras on Wednes­day on Court Four and will be go­ing for a win to keep hop­ing of ad­vanc­ing to the semi­fi­nals alive. Cos­ta Ri­ca got its sec­ond win edg­ing the US Vir­gin Is­lands in a Group A con­test. Pablo Nunez (CRC) took the open­ing clash against Nicholas Bass (USVI)-6-3, 6-2. Ignaci Ro­ca gave Cos­ta Ri­ca an un­beat­able lead beat­ing Bri­an Old­field (6-3, 6-0). Mau­r­izio Fe­oli and Al­lan Reifer then com­plet­ed the rout against Bass and Al­ric Plas­kett (6-2, 6-1). Rain de­layed the start of the dou­ble match­es in the oth­er ties as the heav­ens open at 2:12 pm and then again at 3:15pm with Aru­ba and Hon­duras tied at 1-1 in their Group A clash. Aruban Gi­an Hodg­son bat­tled past Oban­do Ale­jan­dro (7-5, 4-6, 6-3). Gi­an's younger broth­er Ib­ian then went down to Ri­car­do Pine­da (5-7, 2-6). On the re­sump­tion, the Hon­durans took the dou­bles as Mar­co Os­ario and Ke­ny Tur­ki­cios bat­tled by Gi­an Hodg­son and Mitchell De­Jong (5-7, 6-2, 3-6) and the tie 201. Aru­ba lost to Trinidad and To­ba­go (0-3) on the open­ing of play on Mon­day. Ba­hamas surged to a 3-0 sweep of Pana­ma. Rod­ney Carey dis­missed Wal­ner Es­pinoza 7-6 (3), 6-1 and Mar­vin Rolled eased by Luis Fer­nan­do Gar­cia (6-2, 6-0). The de­layed dou­bled clash Carey and Rolle got the bet­ter of Es­pinoza and Juan Jose Fuentes (6-3, 6-4).

DAY 3 SCHED­ULE

All match­es start 10 am

Court 1: Aru­ba vs Hon­duras

Court 2: Ba­hamas vs Ja­maica

Court 3: Pana­ma vs US Vir­gin Is­lands

Court 4: Trinidad and To­ba­go vs Hon­duras