UAE ‘A’ and France defeated the groups and finally, they are in the semi-finals of the 25th Al Nasr Leisureland (ANL) Nations Cup being played at the ANL tennis courts.
The UAE ‘A’ and France completed their league engagements with clean records of four wins to top the two groups.
In Monday’s last round-robin encounter, the hosts got the better of former champions Belgium, who also joined the UAE in the last four stages. In Group B, France topped with a hard-earned 2-1 win over Tunisia and both teams made it through to the semi-finals.
On Wednesday there are semi-finals, in which UAE ‘A’ will face Tunisia while Belgium will face France finalizing the two finalists for Thursday.
In the last match of Group B, the players of two talented teams played in a captive way to decide who would end the top.
Xavier Masson leads France with a well-contested 2-6, 6-2, 12-10 win over former Davis Cup player Essam Jallali while Waleed brought Tunisia with a 6-3, 6-2 win over former ATP Tour player Pierre-Antoine Dumas winning the match.
“Much of the excitement was in the two singles as it featured players with a similar playing level. I knew the key to the match would be concentration and the will to fight till the end,” Essam Jallali told the reporters.
“We came up short in the end, but we enjoyed the tennis as it gave each one the opportunity to see where we stand. In addition, there is the element of fun as we rarely get such a team competition,” he added.
On Wednesday, from 4 pm the semi-finals will be played and the final will be held on Thursday.