The result of the meeting in Dublin was practically decided on the first day when pupils of the captain of the Belarusian squad, Vladimir Volchkov, won their two singles matches. Dmitry Zhirmont beat Sam Barry in a tough three-hour long match, then Yegor Gerasimov defeated Daniel Glancy. After this, the Belarusian team had to win only one of the three remaining matches. They went all out for a win to ensure victory on the second day of the competition. In the doubles, the Belarusian duo of Alexander Bury and Sergey Betov beat James Cluskey and David O’Hare, bring the score to 3:0 in our favour. Despite an absence of motivation in the two singles matches held on Sunday, the Belarusians were again victorious, with Yegor Gerasimov beating Sam Barry and Dmitry Zhirmont defeating Daniel Glancy.
This is the third victory of Belarusians over the Irish so far. Previously, the Belarusian national team have twice achieved success with a similar score — 4:1 in 1997 in Dublin and in 2014 in Minsk.
The team this year is without their former lead coach Max Mirnyi, for the first time in over 20 twenty years of our participation in the Davis Cup matches. In Dublin however, he remained close to his young colleagues and supported the coach Vladimir Volchkov to ensure success.
By Igor Leshin
