The Egypt vs Belarus tie in the Europe / Africa Group II Davis Cup took place at Gezira Club in Cairo, reports Inas Mazhar. Impressively, the clay and outdoor main centre court in Gezira witnessed a high spectator turnout in lovely weather over the weekend. Unfortunately, Egypt lost to Belarus 3-1. The Egyptians failed to take the advantage of playing at home, losing both single matches. Belarus' Egor Gerasimov defeated Egypt's Karim Maamoun 3-0 in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 while Ilya Ivashka beat Mohamed Safwat 3-2 in a thrilling match which saw the Egyptian taking the lead 5-7 in the first set then losing the second 6-0, winning the third 3-6 before collapsing in the last two sets 7-6(3) and 7-5. Youssef Hossam and Safwat then went on to beat Alexander Bury and Egor Gerasimov in another exciting match in the doubles 3-2: 7-6(7), 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. On match day 3, Safwat lost 1-3 to Gerasimov who claimed the third singles win of the tie. Safwat won only the first set 7-6 before losing the next three 5-7, 5-7 and 4-6. Egypt is placed in the Europe / Africa Group II together with Lithuania, Norway, Turkey, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Tunisia, Finland, Zimbabwe, Denmark, Georgia and Belarus. In the same group, Lithuania beat Norway 3-2, South Africa beat Luxembourg 3-0, Turkey defeated Bulgaria 3-2, and Bosnia-Herzegovina knocked down Tunisia 3-1. Latvia defeated Monaco 3-2 while Finland beat Zimbabwe 4-1, while South Africa thrashed Luxembourg 5-0 and Denmark defeated Georgia 5-0. The International Tennis Federation ITF held a total of 32 ties during the weekend and across the world for the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group first round and Zone Group ties which took place from 4-6 March. According to the IRF, Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus set a new record for the longest Davis Cup singles winning streak at the Europe Zone Group III event in Tallinn, Estonia, to help his country win promotion to Group II in 2017. Baghdatis' four singles victories this week extended his winning streak to 36 rubbers to overtake the previous record holder, the legendary Bjorn Borg of Sweden who won 33 consecutive singles rubbers. Estonia also won promotion to Group II in 2017.
