New Zealand winning thrilling Davis Cup tie against Jamaica

New Zealand has won the Davis Cup World Group II playoff against Jamaica in dramatic fashion, with the tie coming down to the final set in the final rubber.

The two nations went into the second day locked at 1-1 after the opening singles matches on Saturday (Sunday NZ time).

But Finn Reynolds and Ajeet Rai put New Zealand back in front by convincingly winning the doubles 6-1 6-2 against John Chin and Nicolas Gore.

Rai backed up playing doubles by playing singles and stepping in for KP Pannu, lost 6-3 6-4 against Jamaica No 1 Blaise Bicknell.

That meant the tie was locked up at 2-2 going into the final rubber, which was between Jack Loutit and Rowland Phillips.

Phillips won the first set 6-3 and went up a break early in the second, as New Zealand slipped into a perilous position. However, the 20-year-old Kiwi then launched an incredible comeback. He won that set 6-3 and then showed immense mental strength to win the deciding set, also 6-3, against his far more experienced opponent.

The result means New Zealand will play in a World Group II tie in September, while Jamaica are relegated to Group III.

New Zealand captain Artem Sitak reflected on the tie.

"Coming here, we knew the crowd was going to be electric," Sitak said.

"I'd seen the videos of them playing before at home, and it was very loud with a full crowd, and that's exactly what we got.

"It was very tough, mentally to handle that, because it was just our team that was cheering for us. Jack came out in the first match right away against their No 1 guy and played an incredible match, coming back from a set down, absolutely locked in the second and third set, and basically just out rallied him.

"Blaise had no answer against Jack. I don't think Jack made an unforced error in that second and third set.

"There were two stops for the rain, so KP came out pretty late with the fading light, and then playing under the lights.

"It was it was a tough match, the No 2 guy was the local favourite and crowd was even louder for him. So the guy (Phillips) was definitely riding the crowd and using it to his advantage to fuel himself, and ended up winning in three sets against KP.

"They pulled out their No 1 guy (Bicknell) from doubles, which was a smart me from them, because they probably weren't going to win that anyway. Ajeet and Finn just got the job done pretty quickly.

"Then Ajeet was playing Blaise and he had a lot of opportunities, he was up a break in a second, just a few unforced errors here and there that made a difference.

"Blaise was strong throughout this whole thing. Then Jack comes out for the deciding match, it was blasting heat, the guy (Phillips) was fired up. It was a brutal, mental and physical battle.

"In the first set, the Jamaican guy was a little bit better than Jack and he broke him right away in the second set, we were looking at 6-3 2-0 down and break point against Jack to go double break down.

"At that moment, I think we all knew, and Jack knew how big of a fighter he is, and he was going to somehow come back from the dead there and just make it happen.

"He just fought like I've never seen before, and made it happen. Then the third set, the guy took a bathroom break, got a little bit of an energy back, and broke Jack again.

"Again, an incredible effort from Jack to get that break back, very smart play, incredibly tough condition, and he got over the line. I think the first time he was ahead in the score was when he broke the opponent at 3-3 in the third set."