JEDDAH, 24 April 2008 — The national tennis team returned home from Brunei last week where they won Group 4 in a feat that earned Saudi Arabia a promotion to Group 3 in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania regional tennis competition.
In the round robin competition in Group 4’s Pool B , Saudi Arabia crushed by identical 3-0 scores Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Qatar, Bangladesh and Jordan.
Singapore topped Pool A undefeated, beating Myanmar 2-1, Iraq 3-0, Bahrain 2-1, and Brunei 3-0, and along with Saudi Arabia will now be bracketed in Asia-Oceania Zone Group 3 in 2009.
A member of the Saudi team Omar Al-Thaqib, 25, told Arab News in a phone interview from Riyadh, “Saudi Arabia had been competing at Davis Cup since 1995. We managed to advance past Group 4 several times and even reached Group 2 but relegated due to lack of exposure. We are happy with our performance this year and looking forward to next year.”
Al-Thaqib explained they could not say the group included weak teams, “they were all strong and thank God we managed to lead our group with terrific scores.” He also added, being teachers and at different schools they were not being able to train very well together.
As part of their training the tennisters competed in Saudi Super League where Thaqib’s club Al-Washm won the title, and from there they entered training camp for two weeks in Riyadh, another three weeks in the Philippines before flying to Brunei a week ahead of the competition.
He said, “this will be my last competition because I’ll fly in May hopefully to the USA.” Adding, this experience will hopefully benefit me and will enable me to benefit my teammates when I get back home,” he said.
With Al-Thaqib on the Saudi national tennis team were Saleh Al-Rajih, Fahad Al-Saad, Bader Al-Moqail and captain Fareh Al-Somali. The tournament was held at the National Tennis Center in Negara, Brunei from April 9 to 13.
Final standings (Pool A) 1. Singapore, 2. Myanmar, 3. Bahrain, 4. Iraq, 5. Brunei (Pool B) 1. Saudi Arabia, 2. Bangladesh, 3. Jordan 4. Turkmenistan, 5. Mongolia, 6. Qatar.
