By Sports Reporter/Doha
After staying in Group IV of the Davis Cup for nine years, Qatar earned a promotion to Asia/Oceania Zone Group III beating Pacific Oceania 2-1 in playoffs in Tehran over the weekend.
Qatar’s Jabor al-Mutawaa beat Emiric Mara of Pacific Oceania 6-3 6-3 on the clay courts of Enghelab Sports Complex in Iran’s capital in the first singles rubber.
With one more win required in the best-of-three tie to get through to Group III, Moussa Shanan scored a 6-2 6-1 win over Juan Sebastian Langeton.
The dead doubles rubber saw the Qatari doubles team of Ali al-Saygh and Shanan lose 3-6 5-7 at the hands of Gilles de Gouy and Daniel Llarenas.
The Qatar national team started their Davis Cup campaign with an impressive 3-0 win over Mongolia before handing Oman a similar drubbing.
Saudi Arabia then handed Qatar a 2-1 defeat. But the team bounced right back with another 3-0 win, this time over Bahrain, finishing behind the Saudis in Pool B.
In the 1st-4th playoffs, Qatar beat Pacific Oceania and Saudi Arabia, who stayed unbeaten in the entire campaign and earned the other promotion to Group III, downed Jordan.
Qatar’s delegation to Iran was led by Qatar Tennis Federation board member and head of the National Team Committee Khalid al-Khelaifi, and the team consisted of Ali Abdel Reda, Jabor al-Mutawaa, Moussa Shanan, Mubarak Shanan and captain Mohamed al-Khenji.