Bermuda?s top tennis girls suffered consecutive 3-0 beatings in their opening Federation Cup matches against group second seeds Paraguay and hosts Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo.

In the opening singles, Paraguay?s Veronica Cepede beat Jacklyn Lambert 6-0, 6-0 before Adriana Pereira downed Ashley Brooks 6-3, 6-2.

Cepede and Pereira then combined to win the doubles match, beatingBrooks and Morgan Lightbourne 6-3, 6-4.

In the second match against the hosts, Lambert went down 6-1, 6-0 to Francesca Segarelli and Brooks was beaten 6-2, 6-1 by Diana Espinal.

The doubles saw Lightbourne and Caitlin Gordon defeated 6-3, 6-4.

Matches against Bolivia and top seeds Venezuela will follow later this week.

Island coach Terry Smith said he was happy how the team played against a much stronger country in the opening game.

?On the whole I feel Bermuda played relatively well,? he said.

?Paraguay are a very steady team that take every opportunity to attack.

?The level of tennis here is very high and the Bermuda girls are, in my opinion, able to play into it but they will need to really commit their efforts completely . . . there?s nothing going to be handed to them and they?ll need to seriously want it.?