Sunday, 8 November 2026
Kenyan Digest

Kenya draw Indonesia in Davis Cup Group II contest

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By LOKEDER NATIOM
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Indonesia now stands between Kenya and Euro/Africa Group 2 Davis Cup qualification after the two nations were drawn to play against each other on Thursday in London.

The tie will take place on March 6 and 7, 2020 in Jakarta, Indonesia, who won the choice of ground in the lucky draw.

The winner of the tie will go on to compete in World Group II ties in September 2020 together with losing nations from the World Group I Play-offs.

Reacting to the draw, Kenya Davis Cup team non-playing captain Rosemary Owino says the team is not surprised about going against Indonesia, since they had no expectations of who they would have wanted to play against.

"Our game plan remains the same, we'll play like it’s our last match and hope that we qualify for the Euro/Africa Group 2. I believe in the team and I know they will do us proud just like they did in the Group 3 playoffs," said Owino on Thursday.

Tunisia, who topped pool B in the Group 3 playoffs held in Nairobi last month, will play against Guatemala to also earn a spot in the September 2020 Group 2 Davis Cup.

The 12 advancing nations from the 2019 Regional Group III events were drawn to play the 12 losing nations from the 2019 Group II ties.

Kenya was in Pot B together with Costa Rica, Estonia, Greece, Jamaica, Latvia, Poland, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tunisia, Vietnam (2019 Group III winners).

They were drawn against Pot A with Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Morocco, Paraguay, Philippines, Zimbabwe (2019 Group II losers).

This method of conducting the draws is being introduced on a trial basis for 2020. The Davis Cup Nations Ranking were not be used for seeding.

The losing nation in the tie will compete in regional Group III events in June, July or September 2020.

Kenya first competed in the Davis Cup tourney back in 1975 and their best result was reaching the Euro/Africa zone semi-finals in 1992, where they were one match shy of the World Group playoffs.

The team was taken down to Group 3 after the introduction of new rules by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) used the four year track performance to rank the teams in the different groups and Kenya fell victim because it had not featured in the 2015 tournament making them finish just under the line and having to compete in the Group 3 level.

The 2020 playoffs will be held in 36 different cities making that weekend one of the biggest in world tennis.