Neal Towlson and Jack Keyes held their nerve in the deciding doubles match to beat Grenada 2-1 and get Bermuda off to a flying start in Group One of the Junior Davis Cup tournament currently being held in the Dominican Republic.

The pair won the decisive match of the day, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 over Grenada's James and Alexis to ensure a 1-0 start.

Rickai Burrows, the third person on the Island team, didn't play in the opening tie but is expected to feature in the next match against top seeds Guatemala.

With each match consisting of two singles and one doubles, yesterday's contest went down to the third and final clash of the day to separate the two countries.

Towlson and Keyes started off the brighter of the two sides, winning the first set 6-4 and seemed to set for an early shower.

That was until a lapse of concentration enabled their opponents to get back into the match with a convincing second set, seeing off the Bermudians 6-1.

But it was the Bermuda pair who came out firing on all cylinders in the last set, jumping out to a 3-0 lead that ballooned to 5-1 before Grenada made a late run at getting back into the match.

They managed to claw their way back to 5-3 but the lead was too much for them to overcome with the third set ending 6-3.

Earlier in the day, Keyes got the ball rolling when he took on Alexis in the first singles match, going down 3-6, 3-6.

The youngster struggled from the outset, going down 5-1 in the first set before conceding it at 6-3.

The second was more evenly contested between the two, although the scoreline read the same as in the first.

It was up to Towlson to level the match when he took to the court and proceeded to do just that, beating Yanneke 6-2, 6-0.

After their winning performance on the first day, the Bermuda team are on course to improve on their 12th place finish from last year, with 17 countries competing.

The winners of each group, along with the next best three records of all groups will play in a knockout round to decide their positions in the top eight, while the remaining nine teams will compete in a separate draw to decide their positions from nine to 17.

Team captain Jerome Bradshaw was pleased with the boys' performances on day one and is looking forward to their meeting with top ranked Guatemala.

"The team are on a high, feeling very good about their accomplishment on the first day and we now look forward to our next match against the event's number one seed Guatemala," said Bradshaw.