The winning Pacific Oceania tennis team Photo: Oceania Tennis
Both the Pacific Oceania men's and women's teams have been promoted after successfully navigating through their tournaments in Asia.
The Pacific Oceania Billie Jean King Cup women's team defeated Indonesia 2-0 in Kuala Lumpur at the weekend to gain promotion to World Group I in 2024.
As has been the case consistently throughout the week, Violet Apisah of Papua New Guinea got the team off to the perfect start beating the number 2 player from Indonesia, Deria Nur Haliza 6-2, 6-2.
Carol Lee of the Northern Marianas, also continued her good form, beat the Indonesia's top player, Beatrice Gumulya 7-5, 6-1.
The pan-Pacific team had topped their group in pool play by winning all five of their games with wins over higher ranked Chinese Taipei and China Hong Kong.
The other members of the team were Abigail Tere-Apisah, Patricia Apisah (both PNG) and Saoirse Breen (Fiji).
Pacific Oceania captain William O'Connell said the team punched way above its weight to succeed.
"Despite our 12th seeding out of 12 teams, I knew we were capable of being promoted. To do it undefeated, beating multiple teams for the first time in our history was special. We have shown again that Pacific tennis players can excel at a very high level of competition and hope our ladies have inspired the next generation of Pacific players to believe they too can excel in this game."
And the men's Davis Cup team have also been promoted, to World Group 2, after their tournament in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The team lost their first match to Malaysia 2-1, but bounced back with wins over Jordan (2-1) and Cambodia (3-0).
The team comprised: Colin Sinclair (Northern Marianas), Clement Mainguy (Vanuatu), Gillian Osmont (French Polynesia), Matavao Fanguna (Tonga), and Aymeric Mara (Vanuatu) -player/captain.
The successful Davis Cup team Photo: Oceania Tennis