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Kenya's hopes of securing promotion to the Euro/Africa Group 2 Davis Cup tournament hang in the balance after they lost 2-0 to hosts Indonesia on Friday in the best-of-five-playoffs at the Gelora Bung Karno tennis stadium in Jakarta
Kenya’s Sheil Kotecha suffered at the hands of 30-year-old Christopher Rungkat, ranked 241 in the world, in the opening rubber after losing 6-1, 6-2, before Ismail Changawa, ranked 1738 in the world, suffered the same fate, losing 6-2, 6-4 to Indonesia’s David Agung Susanto in the second rubber.
“We lost mentally before we lost on the court, because we assumed our opponents would not be tough. They also had home advantage with fans cheering them on continuously and this distracted us from the match, but we hope to revive ourselves in tomorrow’s (Saturday) doubles and finally get to Euro/Africa Group 2,” said Changawa on Friday.
Kenya now has no option but to win Saturday's three remaining rubbers to qualify for the Euro/Arica Group 2 tournament to be played in September.
In Saturday's decisive third rubber, Changawa will team up with his counterpart Ibrahim Kibet to face the Rungkat- Susanto pair in a doubles contest.
Kenya qualified for the Group 2 playoffs alongside Tunisia during the Africa Group Davis Cup Tournament held in Nairobi last year.
Tunisia are due to play Guatemala later Friday in another play-off match. A total 12 nations advanced to the playoffs.
The winners of the 2020 playoffs will proceed to compete in the Group 2 ties with the losing nations from the World Group 1 playoffs later in September.
