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LAWRENCE SMITH/Stuff
Erin Routliffe lost her singles rubber against Madeleine Jessup from Chinese Taipei.
New Zealand will have to spend another year in Asia/Oceania Group II of the Billie Jean King Cup, following the 2-1 loss to Chinese Taipei on Saturday in Malaysia.
The New Zealand team scraped into the promotion playoff tie, despite suffering a shock loss to Mongolia during the pool stage and ended up finishing top of their group, thanks to Indonesia defeating Mongolia on Friday.
That set up Saturday’s tie against Chinese Taipei, who finished second in their pool and the winner of this match up would advance to Asia/Oceania Group I in 2024.
New Zealand got off to a good start, with Jade Otway defeating Latisha Chan 6-4 6-2 in the opening rubber.
But Erin Routliffe lost 6-3 7-5 to Madeleine Jessup in the other singles rubber, meaning it would all come down to the doubles.
New Zealand Davis Cup captain Matt Hair, who has been filling in for Marina Erakovic this week, changed his initially selected doubles team, dropping Valentina Ivanov and Vivian Yang and instead chose Otway and Routliffe to back up from their singles matches earlier in the tie.
However, they went down 6-3 6-3 to Jessup and Hao-Ching Chan in 90 minutes. Incredibly, Routliffe and Otway had 21 break points in the match, but failed to convert any of them.
Given that it was New Zealand’s goal to earn promotion at this Billie Jean King Cup event at the National Tennis Center in Kuala Lumpur, failing to achieve this is a major disappointment.
However, the results highlight the lack of quality singles players produced in New Zealand over the last decade and the size of the job Chris Bent faces when he becomes the country’s national coach in September.
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