Jamaica will host New Zealand in the Davis Cup World Group II Playoffs from January 31-February 2 next year at the Eric Bell National Tennis Centre in Kingston.

The Jamaicans, who lost to Barbados in the World Group II Playoffs at home in February, have been given a lifeline in the form of an automatic promotion back to the Group II Playoffs.

This is due to a recent restructuring of the Davis Cup competition giving a fourth qualifying spot to the Americas region.

As a result of this, Jamaica, who were the highest ranked team who didn’t get promoted, earned the new slot.

They will now host a New Zealand side led by world number 559 Kiranpal Pannu. Jamaica could be without the services of their top player, Blaise Bicknell, who is currently injured.

Blaise Bicknell brushed aside Darian King 6-1 6-0 to draw Jamaica level at 2-2 and extend their World Group II Davis Cup Playoff tie to a fifth and deciding rubber at the Eric Bell Centre in Kingston.

King, hampered by a left knee injury, was never in the contest as Bicknell dominated exhibition style.

"I played well throughout. Of course, he's not 100 percent but I thought I made very good decisions out there and I made him work for what he needed to."

Jamaica, who took the lead through Bicknell in the first singles rubber, fell behind after King beat Rowland Phillips to close Saturday and then returned alongside Haydn Lewis to snatch a thrilling doubles contest to start Sunday's action.

It means the tie will be decided by Jamaica's Phillips and Kaipo Marshall of Barbados and Bicknell, ranked 319 in the world said he has all confidence that Phillips can get the job done for Jamaica.

"If there's anyone I want in this position is Randy because he's Mr Davis Cup, as we call him."

Phillips is Jamaica's winningest Davis Cup player with 26 wins against 12 losses.

Marshall has recorded just one win in eight matches but that success came heroically against Pacific Oceania's Clement Mainguy last year when he rallied from a set and 4-5 down to win and keep Barbados in Group II.

The winner of this tie will remain in Group II, while loser will be relegated to Group III this summer. from my Galaxy

Leading 2-0 from Day 1 of their Davis Cup Group II tie, Jamaica went on to win contest 3-2 at the Eric Bell National Tennis Centre in Kingston on Sunday.

After Rowland Phillips won his match over Krisjtian Tamm 6-1, 6-1 and Blaise Bicknell defeated Kenneth Raisma 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 on Saturday, the Estonian doubles team of Raisma and Jurgen Zopp pulled one back on Sunday when they defeated John Chin and Daniel Azar in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday.

However, things took a turn for the worst for the visitors in match four when Blaise Bicknell defeated Tamm by default to hand Jamaica an unassailable lead.

Blaise Bicknell won his tie-breaker against Tamm, who hit the centre-line judge out of frustration and picking up a default as a result effectively handing the Jamaicans the match.

The visiting team won some consolation when Johannes Seaman defeated Jacob Bicknell 6-1, 6-0 to end the tie 3-2 in favour of the Jamaicans.

Singles victories from Rowland “Randy” Phillips and Blaise Bicknell gave hosts Jamaica a 2-0 lead over Estonia after day one of their group two Davis Cup tie at the Eric Bell National tennis Centre on Saturday.

The day’s first match of the tie saw Jamaica’s Rowland “Randy” Phillips dominate Estonia’s top ranked player Kristjan Tamm 6-1, 6-1 in just one hour to give the hosts the lead.

“Very solid and consistent on my part,” said Phillips on his performance after the match.

Phillips noted that he did not expect such a one-sided match on paper as he is currently ranked 1387 in the ATP rankings while Tamm is much higher at 663.

“It went a lot better than expected. He’s a tough opponent and maybe he didn’t play his best today but I took advantage of my opportunities,” he said.

“I think the atmosphere unsettled him. The crowd helped me out a lot and gave me energy,” he added.

With Jamaica hosting a Davis Cup tie for the first time since 2007, Phillips also spoke about what it meant to play at home.

“Extremely special. It’s a dream come true. Looking over and seeing my family and friends after points kept me locked in and focused for sure,” Phillips said.

With Phillips already in the win column, it was time for Blaise Bicknell, Jamaica’s highest ranked player at number 769 in the ATP rankings, to take the court against Kenneth Raisma who is ranked number 1640.

It was the Estonian who was in the ascendancy early, racing out to a quick 3-0 lead before taking the first set 6-4.

Bicknell was not done, however, and rallied to take the second set by a similar score before overwhelming his Estonian counterpart in the third, winning 6-0 and securing the lead for the Jamaicans heading into Sunday. The match lasted an hour and 46 minutes.

Jamaica has a chance to clinch the tie on Sunday when Phillips and Bicknell take on Raisma and Jurgen Zopp in doubles.

The 34-year-old Zopp, who retired from professional tennis in 2020, achieved a career high ATP ranking of 71 back in 2012 and reached the third round of the French Open in 2018.

The match gets underway at 1:00pm (2:00pm ECT) and can be viewed on the SportsMax TV YouTube channel.

Jamaican Davis Cup Coach/Captain Mel Spence is confident that home-court advantage will be enough for his team to see off a tough challenge from Estonia in their group two qualifying fixture at the Eric Bell National Tennis Centre from February 4-5.

Estonia are currently ranked 59^th in the world, ten spots ahead of the Jamaicans.

“The Estonia team is very good. On paper they have some rankings that are higher than us but that’s just on paper,” Spence said at a press conference on Thursday.

"We have the home court advantage and I think that’s going to push us through,” he added.

Spence noted that the Jamaican team comprising Blaise Bicknell, Jacob Bicknell, Daniel Azar, Randy Phillips and John Chin has been performing well for a while.

“I’m very confident in them. They’ve been playing very good tennis over the last six months to a year and they’ve gelled well. It’s basically the same team that we’ve had before. We have a tough opponent ahead of us but we’ve played tough opponents before and come out on top,” he said.

While the team can’t be together until a few days before the tie, Spence noted the amount of preparation that some members of the team are getting by competing for their universities overseas.

“Within their respective teams they’ll play matches against their other teammates but they just started the season so I’d say they play an average of two matches a week against other schools. That’s plenty of preparation for them.”

21-year-old Blaise Bicknell currently represents the University of Tennessee while Chin, 19, represents Boise State University. Bicknell is currently the highest ranked Jamaican on the ATP Tour at 764.