- Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Jamaica's No. 1 player, Ryan Russell, second left, looks over a T-shirt donated by Western Sports' managing director, Carl Chang, during a sponsorship ceremony for the island's Davis Cup team at the Liguanea Club, New Kingston on Friday. Looking on are, from left, Damar Johnson, Russell, Chang, Dustin Brown and Peter Gordon.
Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport
A TALENTED, YOUNG Davis Cup squad left the island yesterday for the America Zone Group 3 tournament which starts in Trinidad tomorrow.
Guatemala, Honduras, hosts Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, El Salvador and St. Lucia are the other teams aiming to finish in the top two and advance to Group 2 next year.
Spearheading Jamaica's charge is 19-year-old Ryan Russell. He is joined on the four-man squad by lanky Dustin Brown, 18, Damar Johnson, 18, and the veteran of the squad, 22-year-old Peter Gordon.
Non-playing coach Douglas Burke believes this is the year Jamaica can break out of Group 3 and get into higher company.
"We stand a good chance," Burke said during a training session at New Kingston's Liguanea Club on Friday. "Due to all the Futures tournaments we have been having, our guys are getting a lot of competitive exposure," he said.
"Ryan's ranked about 500 by the ATP computer, Dustin Brown's around 600. It's a team which has all ATP ranked players.
"We are going there confident, I think our chances are very good," Burke said of advancing to Group 2 after a fiver-year spell in Group 3.
"I think, because of our ATP rankings that we'll be top seeds at the event," he said.
The eight teams are split into two groups of four and play each other in a round-robin format with the top two from each group qualifying for the all-important semi-finals from which the winners gain promotion.
Burke said Puerto Rico, Honduras and El Salvador were the danger sides.
"Judging from the (team) lists I have seen, they all have world ranked players as well but because of our players' higher rankings I would expect us to be the top seeds," he said of today's draw.
A mainstay of the Davis Cup team over the past few years and one of the island's top players, Jermaine Smith, was unavailable for selection this year.
"Unfortunately, Jermaine has very bad tendonitis in his wrist last year and could not play at all and had to take months off. He is just starting to come back a little bit now," Burke said.
