Bermuda's Federation Cup team suffered their second defeat in three matches when they were beaten 3-0 by Guatemala at the Maya Country Club in El Salvador yesterday.

The result means that the Island can do no better than ninth place out of 16 with two further matches to be played, including today's fixture when they face off against Panama.

Against Guatemala, following an opening 6-2, 6-1 singles loss by Danielle Paynter to Maria Paz Orera, Bermuda were still in with a shot of levelling and possibly taking the tie as Zarah DeSilva battled tooth and nail with Louisa Lopez.

However, after clawing back from 4-1 down in the second and even taking the advantage, the local youngster succumbed to the more experienced Lopez in a tie-break. The final scoreline read 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), which rendered the doubles match meaningless.

Lopez later teamed with Lucia Henkle to down Bermuda's pairing of Danielle Downey and Tara Lambert 6-3, 6-2.

"Zarah almost had that second set,'' explained coach and captain Kelly Holland, the disappointment clear in her tone. "We were looking for a turning point in the day right there when she went up 6-5 in the second set after being down 4-1.

"Then this girl Louisa -- I've seen her down there for the last five years -- she's got a lot of experience, played steady as a rock and unfortunately beat her.

"Today was a tough day, everybody knew that if we won we would be playing for positions five through eight and if we lost nine through twelve. Danielle didn't have the best day on the court, but Zarah really had a great match from the bottom of her toes all the way up she really dug hard and played tough tennis.

"That's just the way it goes. Those girls had a little bit more experience, maybe with some match play.'' Still, there is today and Holland intimated that the team was eager to right the ship and garner at least one more victory, if not two.

Today's winners will play each other for ninth position, while the losers will return to compete for the 11th spot.

"The girls are determined to have another win. Everybody's really sure that we're going to have another win, so we'll go in there positive against Costa Rica. They're a tough team, but we've been pretty tough here too.'' Bermuda won their first match of the tournament on Wednesday, with a 2-1 triumph over Jamaica, this after being handily beaten 3-0 by a strong Puerto Rico outfit.

They thus finished third in the four-member pool, which was predictably won by Puerto Rico, with Guatemala third and Jamaica fourth.

Zarah DeSilva: lost a tight match to Guatemala's Louisa Lopez during yesterday's Federation Cup tie in El Salvador. Bermuda lost the tie 3-0, having defeated Jamaica 2-1 a day earlier.