Kenya suffer Davis Cup heartbreak in Indonesia
What you need to know:
- Kenya's duo of Ismael Changawa and Ibrahim Kibet lost 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 to Christopher Rungkat and David Susanto of Indonesia bringing their lost rubbers to four from the best-of-five contest in their doubles match played at the same venue.
Kenya's hope of featuring in the Euro/Africa Group 2 tournament later in September this year was shattered on Saturday after they lost two of their decisive rubbers to Indonesia in the best-of-five Euro/Africa Group 2 playoffs at the Gelora Bung Karno tennis stadium in Jarkarta.
Kenya's duo of Ismael Changawa and Ibrahim Kibet lost 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 to Christopher Rungkat and David Susanto of Indonesia bringing their lost rubbers to four from the best-of-five contest in their doubles match played at the same venue.
Later, Kevin Cheruiyot lost 6-4, 6-2 to Trismuwantara Gunawan of Indonesia, which all but sealed the team's drop back to the Davis Cup Africa Zone Group 3.
Kenya had previously lost its first two rubbers on Friday with 19-year-old Sheil Kotecha losing 6-1, 6-2 to Indonesia's Rungkat while 23-year-old Changawa lost 6-2, 6-4 to Susanto - who is ranked 765 in the world.
“We understand that that we don’t have to win all the time but we are sure we tried our best. We also cannot pin point what exactly went wrong but we are grateful for the experience and hope to redeem ourselves in the upcoming tournaments,” said Changawa.
Indonesia will now proceed to compete in the Group 2 ties with the losing nations from the World Group 1 playoffs later in the year in September.
The last time Kenya qualified for Euro/Africa Group 2 was in 1992 where they were eliminated in the semi-finals, falling just one match shy of the World Group 1 playoffs.
