The dou­bles pair of teenag­er Jor­dane Dook­ie and vet­er­an An­neliese Rose de­feat­ed Ja­maica’s Ki­na Gra­ham and Kather­ine Gibbs in straight set to se­cure a 2-1 win in their open­ing match in Group B when the Amer­i­c­as Group Three Bil­lie Jean King Cup served off at the Fed­era­cion Sal­vadore­na de Te­nis in San Sal­vador, El Sal­vador, Monday (June 15).

The Dun­stan De Noon coached T&T women were giv­en a stel­lar start by George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent/ath­lete Solange Skeene, 22, the daugh­ter of for­mer na­tion­al foot­baller Dex­ter Skeene, when she eas­i­ly swept aside Gibbs 6-1, 6-0.

How­ev­er, Gra­ham avoid­ed de­feat for Ja­maica when she brushed aside 19-year-old Dook­ie of Drake Uni­ver­si­ty 6-0, 6-1 to set up the third and de­cid­ing dou­bles en­counter where 47-year-old Rose and Dook­ie com­bined to beat Gra­ham and Gibbs 6-2, 6-2 to se­cure the 2-1 win for T&T.

Al­so on win­ners row in Group B was Cos­ta Ri­ca by a sim­i­lar 2-1 mar­gin over Pana­ma while Bermu­da was on a bye and in Group A, Bar­ba­dos blanked An­tigua & Bar­bu­da 3-0 and El Sal­vador al­so trounced Cu­ba 3-0

To­day, in Group B, T&T faces Cos­ta Ri­ca and Bermu­da bat­tles Pana­ma while in Group A, Bar­ba­dos and El Sal­vador clash in a meet­ing of first day win­ners, with Suri­name and An­tigua & Bar­bu­da fac­ing off in the oth­er en­counter.

At the end of their re­spec­tive round-robin se­ries on Fri­day, the top two teams in each group will qual­i­fy to the cross-over semi­fi­nals, with the win­ners earn­ing the two pro­mo­tion­al spots.