Brunei Darussalam’s national women’s tennis team marked a new milestone after winning their first-ever match in the highly-prestigious 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group III at the Bahrain Polytechnic in Isa Town, Bahrain recently.
The women team comprising Chong Ming Rui, Tan Jia Hui and Adriana Sim beat Tajikistan 3-0 to finish third in the four-team group.
The team exacted redemption having been on the receiving end during their tie against the same opponents the previous year.
Brunei national team captain Billy Wong said, “The girls played very well, they implemented and stuck to their game plan.”
He continued, “As this game was the main tie that we were focusing on, both Ming Rui and Jia Hui were feeling quite nervous at the start but played the best tennis of their tournament in extreme heat.”
“I am very pleased that the girls managed to implement the things that we were working on leading up to this tie given the pressure of attempting to win our first ever tie.”
The women team also played against Qatar and Nepal where they lost on both occasions.
During the match against the seasoned Qataris, Billy shared that the national women’s team had opportunities to take the game off their opponent on deuce but unfortunately were not able to convert them.
He added, “Those were encouraging signs as we are building the team to prepare for our main goal of winning one tie in this event which is Tajikistan.”
The head coach expressed hopes to progress and build on their game against group favourites Nepal.
Nepal was one of the favourites to get promoted and their top player holds the highest ranking in the tournament with a WTA rank of 856.
With an eye on the Tajikistan tie, Billy said on thoughts of the Nepal match, “We tried our best to play and practice adaptions and I am pleased that even against such high calibre opponents, they were about to do so.”
The Brunei team made their comeback in the competition the previous year having made their last appearance in 1996.
The participating teams also included hosts Bahrain, Bhutan, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgystan, Laos, Macau, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Vietnam. – Fadhil Yunus
