JŪRMALA — Latvia have won their Davis Cup tennis tie over Slovenia to return to Europe/Africa Group I for the 2010 season.

Latvia began Friday’s singles shakily when Slovenia’s Grega Zemlja easily disposed on Latvian no. 2 Andis Juška 1-6, 1-6, 4-6. Zemlja’s  lower ranked compatriot Luka Gregoric then prepared to take on Ernests “The Gull” Gulbis, in what many would have assumed to be a one-sided affair in favor of the Latvian. However, Gulbis’ recent poor form in ATP World Tour event poured over into his game here, finding himself down two sets (4-6, 6-7) in the five set rubber. In the third, the reality of the situation seemed to occur to The Gull, who fought back to take the next two sets 6-4, 6-4. Down early in the fifth, The Gull finally rallied back to win the tie in rather shaky fashion 8-6.

If rankings were anything to go by then the doubles on Saturday should have easily been Latvia’s for the taking with the Latvian pairing of Gulbis and doubles specialist Deniss Pavlovs far outranking their opponents Gregorc and Zemlja. Latvia won the first set in a tie-break but the Slovenians never looked in doubt when taking the second and third sets 6-4, 6-2 respectively. When Latvia crawled back into the match winning the fourth set with ease 6-2, it looked like the momentum had swung in favor of the Latvian duo. However, the Slovenes came back strong in the deciding set to take it 6-4, leaving Latvia with everything to do in the return singles on Sunday.

Knowing that a loss would effectively end the tie, Gulbis went out a renewed man on Sunday, playing his best tennis of the weekend on the way to defeating Zemlja 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. This saw the teams tied at two matches apiece with all to play for in the final match. Slovakia pulled out their trump card in world no. 149 Blaz Kavcic who had mysteriously been missing from action for the weekend to date, to take on Juška. The fact that his opponent was ranked over 100 places ahead of him in world ranking did not appear to phase the young Latvian seeing Kavcic off in three sets 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

Latvia now qualifies to play in Group I next along with Finland who also move up. They will be playing alongside Great Britain, Slovak Republic and Poland.