Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport

THE CURTAIN finally came down on Jamaica's four-year Houdini act to avoid relegation to Davis Cup Americas Zone Group Three at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre against the Netherland Antilles yesterday.

For three straight years, the team successfully escaped the drop in Group Two relegation play-offs, but that came to an end when a game doubles performance from Ryan Russell and Damion Johnson was not enough to stave off a 7-6 (9), 7-6 (7), 7-6 (7) loss to Curaao Jean-Julien Rojer and Raoul Behr which sealed a 3-0 victory in the tie for the Eastern Caribbean team.

Following their singles losses on Friday, Russell and Johnson had to come up with something special to keep Jamaica alive yesterday but, in a pulsating clash in front of a partisan crowd, they came up painfully short in three tight tiebreak sets.

Proud of guys

"I'm very proud of our guys," Jamaica's Davis Cup captain Douglas Burke said after the three-hour-long rubber. "We had our chances ... but that's the way the game goes. Boy, it's really, really tough. A couple of breaks went their (Netherland Antilles) way at important times but I congratulate them, they did really well but we had it on our racquets today.

"I don't feel let down. I feel disappointed that we have to go down to Group Three, but I am proud of the way we played to try and stay in Group Two," Burke said.

Netherland Antilles captain Behr, whose team has also struggled in recent times to stay in the group, was a relieved and tired man after the match.

"This means a lot for us," Behr said of the victory. "I think we are a solid contender. It will be tough for us to go up to Group One, we need a little bit more ... but we have a fine group of players and the future looks good for us."The evenly matched doubles teams traded breaks in each of the three sets but the Netherland Antilles just got their noses in front when it mattered most.

In the first set tiebreak, a Russell smash gave Jamaica set point at 7-6 but the Netherland Antilles won the next three points to claim a vital edge.

The story was similar in the second 'breaker' when Jamaica held a 5-4 advantage before Rojer and Behr again ran three straight points for a 2-0 lead.

Despite being down by a daunting two sets, the Jamaicans refused to buckle and fought back from a break down to send the game into a third tiebreak. However, the visitors raced to a 6-3 lead and, despite saving two match points, the match ended when Johnson netted an overhead shot.

The formalities of the tie will be completed today with the dead reverse singles rubbers starting at 10:00 a.m.