T&T ten­nis play­ers Aal­isha Alex­is and Jor­dane Dook­ie claimed the two sin­gles match­es ear­ly to take fifth place ahead of re­gion­al ri­val St Lu­cia (LCA) at the Amer­i­c­as Zone Group III Play-Off of the Bil­lie Jean King Cup at the Na­tion­al Rac­quet Cen­tre in Tacarigua on Sat­ur­day.

The An­neliese Rose-coached team sur­ren­dered a gold­en op­por­tu­ni­ty for pro­mo­tion to the top four teams on Fri­day when they went down to Bar­ba­dos (BAR) 2-1. Rose in­ject­ed her­self in­to the dou­bles for the first time in the tour­na­ment, and it paid huge div­i­dends when her com­bi­na­tion with Dook­ie proved strong enough to get them past the Ba­jam team of Han­nah Cham­bers/Cherise Slo­combe (BAR) in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.

It was the one de­feat for the girls af­ter Dook­ie and Yolande Lea­cock lost their re­spec­tive sin­gles match­es. The vast­ly ex­pe­ri­enced Lea­cock went un­der to Gabrielle Leslie 6-1, 6-3, and Dook­ie, de­spite her out­ings abroad to in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions, was beat­en by Bar­ba­dos' Ser­e­na Bryant in three sets 0-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Yes­ter­day, Dook­ie, who has not had the kind of suc­cess in the sin­gles that she was hop­ing for, made amends by clob­ber­ing Meg­gan William (LCA) 6-3, 6-1 for a 1-0 T&T ad­van­tage.

Alex­is, who was giv­en the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to con­test the oth­er sin­gles ahead of Lea­cock, proved her coach right by de­feat­ing Jes­si­ca Eu­dovic (LCA) 7-6 (7), 6-4 for an unas­sail­able ad­van­tage 2-0 to se­cure the fifth-place fin­ish.

Rose af­ter the tour­na­ment con­grat­u­lat­ed the girls for their ef­fort, say­ing they gave it their best and they played well and adding: "But now is a time for them to em­brace the ex­pe­ri­ence and learn from it. Had we won on Fri­day against Bar­ba­dos we would have been play­ing for pro­mo­tion.

"I think when we won the dou­bles on Fri­day I kept on say­ing to my­self that had we won one more game we would have been through but again, I have been here many times be­fore and I do not want to get in­to a sit­u­a­tion of ask­ing ifs, when and whats," Rose said.

"I have been talk­ing to the girls and try­ing to sort out what the next step is for us. I think three of the girls could be off to col­leges in the Unit­ed States but we will meet be­fore next year be­cause we don't know who will be on the team and who will not."

Re­sults

Aal­isha Alex­is (TTO) def Jes­si­ca Eu­dovic (LCA) 7-6 (7), 6-4

Lu­cia Gal­le­gos (CRC) def Ade­o­la Greatorex (JAM) 7-5, 6-0

Michelle Irigoyen (ESA) def Ser­e­na Bryant (BAR) 6-0, 6-2

Jor­dane Dook­ie (TTO) def Meg­gan William (LCA) 6-3, 6-1

Shel­by Madeiros (BER) def Tatyana Madu­abuchuk­wu (BAH) 6-2, 6-0

Danielle Thomp­son (BAH) def Nad­hi­ra Durham (BER) 6-0, 6-0

Na­jah Daw­son (JAM) def Nicole Al­varo (CRC) 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5)

Zoe Fish­er/Shel­by Madeiros (BER) def Danielle Thomp­son/Tatyana Madu­abuchuk­wu (BAH) 6-3, 7-6 (4)

Han­nah Cham­bers/Cherise Slo­combe (BAR) def Sara Valenti­na Cruz Bonil­la/Michelle Irigoyen (ESA) 6-3, 0-6, 11-9