Prairie View A&M Men's Tennis' Xavier Lawrence Selected to Participate In Davis Cup

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas -- Xavier Lawrence of the Prairie View A&M men's tennis team recently won a tournament in his home country of Barbodos and has been selected to represent his country in the Davis Cup.

"This is a huge opportunity for Xavier," said PVAMU's head tennis coach Duane Williams. "As a tennis player pretty much everyone has the dream of playing professionally tennis. The Davis Cup as well as being an international competition it also includes many professional players. So through hard work and dedication Xavier has earned to opportunity to not only play for his country but to do so at the highest possible level."

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organizers as the "World Cup of Tennis", and the winners are referred to as the World Champion team. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Great Britain and the United States. By 2016, 135 nations entered teams into the competition.

The St. James native Lawrence made a strong case by capping the unofficial Davis Cup trials with a 6-4, 6-4 straight-sets victory over the more seasoned veteran Seanon Williams. Yet Lawrence's selection was even more straightforward, as the 19-year-old sophomore all but earned his spot by toppling both Adam Hornby (7-5, 4-6, 6-1) previously and Williams in successive matches en route to the Top 8 title.

Lawrence will be joining four others that make up the five-man squad. He will join world no.173 Darian King, seasoned veteran Haydn Lewis, Kaipo Marshall and Hampton University's Matthew Foster-Estwickat the opening-round Group I encounter.

This means the 15-year-old Marshall is set to become the youngest Bajan player to make a senior Davis Cup roster since now Prairie View A&M's head coach Duane Williams, which also did so as a 15-year-old back in 1995.

As such, Barbados will field one of its youngest teams to date, as the 20-year-old Foster-Estwick, Lawrence and Marshall are all under the age of 21.

"This achievement by Xavier is a testament to PVAMU's continued goal of developing student athletes," Williams said. "This shows that the entire athletics program including strength & conditioning and sports medicine are definitely developing high caliber athletes."

Barbados will begin play against Colombia at the National Tennis Centre on February 2 with both opening singles before concluding the tie the following day with doubles and the reverse singles.

"I am confident that Xavier will represent his country of Barbados and Prairie View A&M University to the best of his ability," said Williams.

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