Singapore Men's Tennis Team banish ghosts of 2022 with play-off victory against Kyrgyzstan
Antalya Turkey, 23 October 2023 - Singapore men's tennis team comprising captain Daniel Heryanto, Shaheed Alam, Roy Hobbs, Steve Ng, Jerall Jasin and Michael Jimenez defeated Kyrgyzstan 2-0 in the promotional play-off of the Davis Cup 2023 to win Asia / Oceania Group 4 and earn themselves a promotion for 2024.
Singapore last earned promotion back into the tournament's Group 3 in 2018 in Oman, and reached the play-off final last year before narrowly losing out to Cambodia.
SportPlus.sg understands that the expectations for the team was always to promote back into group 3, particularly when the team came really close in 2022 and only lost out in the playoffs.
Despite the lofty target, the conditions weren't in favour of Team Singapore with the competition being played out on clay at this year's event in Turkey.
It turned out to be a pleasant surprise then, as the teams had managed their expectations going into the tournament with a strong line-up of teams competing in their group this year. Relief was written all over the faces of the Singapore tennis team when they achieved their target against a resilient Kyrgyzstan side that had pull off an upset by defeating favourites Kuwait in their group.
Shaheed Alam attributed the team's success this year to the great team chemistry he and his teammates shared both on and off the court.
"We all played our part in helping Singapore promote be it on court or off court. Davis Cup is a team event so the support off court really can influence the performances on court," said Shaheed. "On top of that, I have been training really hard in college in the US to prepare for this just as the rest of the team."
When asked how the team dealt with the pressure of playing in another play-off final in two years, having lost the previous one, Shaheed shared:
"To be honest, we were all surprised that Kyrgyzstan topped the Group after beating the favourites, Kuwait. After losing the first match to Syria in our group, we knew the best we could finish was second in the group and was expecting to play Kuwait but Kyrgyzstan pulled off an insane upset on the last day of the group stages to top the group."
He added: "Before the play-offs, we fancied our chances and were confident in getting the win especially after that heartbreaking defeat last year, we wanted to make things right and made sure we got over the line this time. It's a relief that we got the win more than anything."
Davis Cup is an event that the Singapore men's team looks forward to the most each year and this year's results would go a long way towards boosting the team's morale after a tough twelve months.
"I'm really happy that I manage to pull through in all of them and remain unbeaten this year so that's a huge confidence boost for me and to get promoted is the icing on the cake after what has been a fantastic year for me in terms of my tennis career," said Shaheed.
"Now it's back to work as I prepare for the College season next year and of course Group 3 of Davis Cup where we will face much tougher oppositions but I'm very much looking forward to it!"