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Guam - Despite a valiant effort by Pacific Oceania, Lebanon has officially sealed its spot in BNP Paribas Davis Cup Group II Asia/Oceania Zone for 2013 and relegated its opponents to Group III following Saturday’s doubles match.

Facing a do or die situation, Guam’s Danny Llarenas and Vanuatu’s Cyril Jacobe paced their Middle Eastern opponents, Bassam Beidas and Patrick Chucri early on in the match, but fell in straight sets. Beidas and Chucri notched a 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 win to clinch the best-of-five relegation playoff victory.

In Friday’s matches, Lebanon claimed a 2-0 advantage after winning both singles matches. Beidas, ranked No. 521 in the world, defeated Jacobe, the 2011 Pacific Games silver medalist, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 and later in the day, Karim Alayli staved off a late surge by Samoa’s Juan Sebastian Langton, 6-0, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.

The Pacific Oceania team will play best-of-three sets reverse singles matches Sunday afternoon, Lebanon time, although the results will not affect the overall outcome of the playoff.

Pacific Oceania has evaded relegation to Group III twice in a row, defeating Malaysia 3-2 in 2010 and then Iran in 2011. The team’s longest run in Group II is four years, from 2005 to 2008, where the team won its first and only first round tie in 2005 coincidentally against a Lebanon team that included Alayli and Chucri, the Davis Cup Web site states. Lebanon was one of two countries promoted to Group II last year. Sri Lanka was the other country promoted to Group II for 2012.

Davis Cup consists of five groups – the World Group, Group I, Group II, Group III and Group IV. Groups III and IV feature round-robin style play, while the upper groups feature best of five match series. Pacific Oceania has never advanced past Group II.

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