A final day victory was nowhere near enough to salvage a difficult week for the Bermuda Davis Cup team.

Promotion was out the window after two defeats on the opening two days, but a 2-1 victory over the Eastern Caribbean ? their only win in the tournament ? gave Steve Bean?s men fifth place out of the six teams in Americas Zone Group IV.

The Costa Rican trip ? almost a non-starter due to a lack of funding ? was all but a write-off for number two player Jenson Bascome, who managed just one doubles and one singles game due to flu that struck him the night before competition began on Wednesday.

That gave rookie Gavin Manders a chance to play some singles, one of the only positives to come out of a trip that saw Bermuda win just three rubbers all week.

?We went down there with high expectations,? said Bean, who flies out today and expects to arrive back in Bermuda with James Collieson tomorrow.

?Things didn?t go the way we wanted so naturally the players and myself are disappointed. We gave it our best and I think it was a good experience for our younger players Gavin (Manders) and Jovan (Whitter).?

When asked if all the shenanigans over whether the team would go ? which meant Government donating nearly $10,000 ? were worth it, Bean replied: ?The fact that Bermuda had a team playing in the Davis Cup was very important.

?This event is the pinnacle of international competition and gives players something to work for. The Davis Cup is huge and for Bermuda not to compete would be bad for tennis in Bermuda and bad for Bermuda.

?Sport is unpredictable, some times things go for you other times they don?t. Bermuda has always been competitive at this level ? we have been promoted twice ? and we remain so.

?We could have won the first game (against Barbados) where we had two match points, and we were up against some strong teams this year like Guatemala and Costa Rica.

?We remain competitive at this level, there can be no question about that.?

Bermuda went into the last day of competition facing the ignominy of the wooden spoon after going down 3-0 on Saturday to Guatemala, a team who were in Group II in recent history.

Number one player Collieson was beaten 6-3, 6-3 by Cristian Paiz while Whitter went down 6-0, 6-1 to Luis Perez-Chete ? Manders and Whitter were then beaten 6-2, 6-1 by Jacobo Chavez and Paiz in the dead rubber.

But in the basement battle with the Eastern Caribbean yesterday, Collieson lost in three sets (7-5 1-6 6-4) to Glynn James but Manders notched his first Davis Cup triumph with a 6-0, 7-6 win over Hayden Ashton to tie things up.

Collieson and Manders were 4-1 in the first set of the deciding doubles against Ashton and James when the Caribbean pair retired to give Bermuda the win and send their opponents to the bottom of the pile.

Manders will now return to his South Carolina base while Whitter and Bascome head back to school in Philadelphia.