Kenyans lose as bid for promotion in Davies Cup goes up in smoke

Kenya on Wednesday succumbed to their second defeat at the Davis Cup Africa Zone III Championship, going down 2-1 to Benin at the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar.

The defeat all but ended the country’s hopes of securing promotion to the Euro Africa Group II division after their 3-0 loss to the hosts on Tuesday.

Ismael Changawa and Kevin Cheruiyot lost their respective men’s single matches but Cheruiyot teamed up with Ibrahim Kibet to win the doubles match.

Cheruiyot, went down 6-2, 6-4 to Loic Didavi in a match that lasted 75 minutes.

Kenya’s top seeded player Changawa was next up on court hoping to turn around the country’s fortunes as he took on Benin’s top seed Alexis Klegou.

Despite a spirited fight, the US-based Changawa went down 6-3, 7-6.

Kenya play Botswana on Thursday.

“The lessons we get from every match will help us become better but we are gutted about the result. We will keep fighting,” Changawa said on phone.

Kenya put up its best performance at the championship to win the doubles event as Cheruiyot and Kibet recovered from losing the opening set to beat Felix Hounkpevi and Magloire Yakpa 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

The Kenyans romped to victory after 77 minutes of action to give the score line a respectable look despite losing the match.

“We wanted to show that we are not just here to make up the numbers, the doubles win gives us hope that we can win the remaining matches,” Kibet said.

After an error prone first set, the Kenyan youngsters regrouped to outclass their West African opponents. They won a total of 45 match points as compared to their opponents 35 in the fast paced encounter.

Kibet hit a total of 14 aces while Cheruiyot won 14 break points capitalising on their opponents’ poor serving in the final two sets.

The top two teams in the two-pool event will be promoted.