Bermuda's Davis Cup team were celebrating yesterday after clinching promotion to American Zone Group III.

The four-man team finished second behind host country Honduras in the seven-nation round robin tournament after winning their fifth tie out of six on Saturday, 3-0 against Antigua.

Ricky Mallory, who had struggled with injury all week and was rested for Friday's tie against the Organistaion of Eastern Caribbean States, won the opening singles rubber 6-1, 6-1 against Gershun Phillip.

And when James Collieson followed that with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Carlton Bedminster, Bermuda clinched victory in the tie and with it, promotion to American Zone Group III.

But doubles pair Jenson Bascome and Dean Mello put the icing on the cake, by winning a tight doubles match to seal Bermuda's second successive 3-0 win.

The pair fought back after losing the first set in a tiebreaker to beat Kevin Gardener and Jerry Williams 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.

Elated captain Steve Bean said: "I am the happiest team captain alive.

"I am extremely proud to be captain of four great tennis players who showed a lot of heart this week and coped well with a great deal of pressure.

"The last time we were relegated from Group III, it was Antigua who put us down when they beat us in Bolivia. So this was sweet revenge.'' Bean said things had become tense, as Collieson came within range of sealing promotion in the second set against Phillip.

"James came out smokin' and won the first set 6-1. It got very tight in the second set as his opponent started to play well, but James did well to close it out at 7-5,'' said Bean.

Collieson admitted: "He started to up his level and to be honest I was kind of lucky to win it.'' The team overcame problems which started before they even left for Central America.

First, top players Donald Evans and Michael Way dropped out of the team through work commitments and then the draw gave them six ties to play in six days in the fierce heat, leaving them the only team in the tournament without a rest day.

Then on the morning of their first tie against strongly fancied St. Lucia, one of their two singles specialists, Mallory, woke up with inflamed neck muscles, an injury which continued to trouble him for the whole tournament.

But 20-year-old Jenson Bascome deputised for Mallory in the opening rubber and won in straight sets, setting the tone for the week.

Their only defeat came against Honduras, who were relegated from Group III last year and bounced straight back. They were expected to win their tie yesterday to finish with a 100 percent record.

Victories over St. Lucia, Barbados, the US Virgin Islands, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Antigua gave Bermuda promotion.

Perhaps the most critical victory of the week came in the decisive doubles rubber against the US Virgin Islands on Thursday. Despite losing the first set, Mello and Bascome fought back to win the next two.

"We always believed we could win and we just stayed focused. That gave us the edge and we were able to close it out,'' said Mello.

"It was a great week and it was superb to finish it with two 3-0 victories.

Jenson and I were 3-1 down in the third against Antigua but we managed to win 6-3. It was a perfect way to end the week.'' Bean said his team had enjoyed some unexpected help from the local spectators at the Club Arabe in San-Pedro-Sula.

"The fans were noisy -- you get that wherever you go in Davis Cup,'' said Bean. "We found that when Honduras had stopped playing, a lot of their fans would come and watch Bermuda and they were rooting for us.

"We knew it would be tough to get promotion with Honduras here and St. Lucia who beat us in Trinidad last year. But the guys were energised by the fact that we were going for promotion and it was a total team effort.'' For Collieson, the tournament had started badly with two successive singles defeats against St. Lucia and Honduras, but he bounced back to win his next four in a row.

"I got off to a shaky start,'' said Collieson. "I played the best two players first and in a way that was good, in that I got them out of the way.

The next guy I played was tough as well but I beat him in three sets, then I won another three-setter and my confidence was up.

"I think we probably did better than we expected to, but this was the most dedicated team I've ever seen. We had a lot of early nights and a lot of hard practice.'' Big finish: Ricky Mallory shrugged off a neck injury to finish his Davis Cup campaign in style, crushing his Antiguan opponent in straight sets on Saturday.