THE KING OF SWING is sitting this one out.
Barbados will have to do without its best tennis player for next week’s tie in the Dominican Republic, as Darian King is taking a break from Davis Cup duty to focus on qualifying for the French Open.
King’s older brother and coach Christopher King confirmed the news yesterday after the Barbados Tennis Association named a three-man squad that didn’t include the World No. 172.
“We had a conversation with the Association and we came to a mutual agreement about Darian playing some of the ties and not all of them so he can focus on his international career because he has some points to make up considering his ranking is not where we would like it right now,” explained the elder King.
Missed French Open
“We had a situation last year where his missed out on the French Open because he didn’t get to play the tournaments he would have liked due to his Davis Cup responsibilities so this year we wanted him to start his clay court season to start earlier by going to Panama and then the Houston ATP 250.
“Of course he’s still committed to Barbados tennis and specifically the Davis Cup team because he loves to play for Barbados. And now he gets to play more of a mentorship role with the youngsters on the team and he relishes that more than just turning up and winning matches for Barbados,” he added.
It’s the first time in eight years that King won’t feature in the senior national side after the then 17-year-old missed all four of Barbados’ Group IV ties in Panama.
Yet his decision to take a break comes as no real surprise, as many pundits felt King’s eventual absence was only inevitable the closer he got towards cracking the world’s top 100 and automatically qualifying for Grand Slams.
Surrendered rights to tie
And the move comes just three weeks after the BTA surrendered the right to host next weekend’s tie, leaving those within tennis circles to question if the decision was prompted by King’s request to step away from the team.
“That had nothing to do with it. We are still in the red from hosting the first tie and we didn’t think we could mobilise $90 000 in funding in such a short time, so if this team isn’t successful and we have to host a tie in September against Ecuador that should give us enough time to raise the money necessary,” said BTA president Dr Raymond Forde.
“He had asked that a special request be made because he is trying to get into the French Open after losing a lot of points; so we agreed for him to be omitted, but he has assured us he will play if Barbados has to in a relegation tie later this year.”
The squad will now have to go without the services of its greatest tennis player considering King has the highest winning percentage of any Bajan in Davis Cup play.
His absence has left a considerably weakened side that features seasoned veteran Haydn Lewis and two rookie teenagers in Xavier Lawrence and Kaipo Marshall, as Matthew Foster-Estwick and Adam Hornby weren’t released from their colleges.
It means Barbados will likely have to host Ecuador in a do-or-die tie for the right to remain in Group I later this year.
“There’s no way Darian will miss that tie in September if it comes to that because as I said he’s very much committed to Barbados tennis and there’s no way he’d just stand there and watch the team get demoted,” reasoned Christopher.
“At the very least his absence won’t hurt the youngsters because Darian played his first Davis Cup match at 16 and Xavier and Kaipo don’t get the opportunity to travel enough to play big tournaments.” (JM)
