Ricky Mallory was forced to retire through injury as Bermuda's Davis Cup team crashed to a 3-0 defeat against host nation Honduras yesterday.

Mallory, playing against Carlton Alvarez in the opening singles rubber, had lost the first set 7-5 and was trailing 3-1 in the second when he broke down with pain in his neck and left shoulder after stretching for a backhand.

Bermuda's number one-ranked singles player James Collieson was also beaten 6-0, 6-4 against the powerful Carlson Caceros in 91-degree heat and high humidity.

And Honduras rounded off a convincing victory when Caceros and Christian Kawas defeated Bermuda's Jenson Bascome and Dean Mello 6-2, 6-1.

Mallory was undergoing intensive physiotherapy last night in a bid to be ready to play in today's tie against Barbados.

The 34-year-old had to pull out of his singles match in Monday's 2-1 victory against St. Lucia after waking up with a sore neck. Youngster Jenson Bascome took his place and won. After two massages, Mallory felt fit enough to partner Bascome to a decisive straight-sets victory in the doubles.

Mallory, who achieved an unprecedented clean sweep of major domestic singles titles last year, is crucial to the four-man team and captain Steve Bean had hoped to play him in the opening singles rubber in each of their six ties this week.

If his injury fails to clear up, it would leave Bermuda facing four matches in four days with a three-man team.

Bean, who described Mallory's problem as inflamed muscles, was still hopeful Mallory would be fit for today.

"I would be optimistic that between now and start of play at 3.00 p.m., Ricky will benefit enough from treatment to be able to play,'' said Bean. "The plan is still to have Ricky and James playing our singles matches and if they're both fit our chances will be very good.

"I think the cause of the injury was just the position Ricky was sleeping in.

This is a problem he's had before at home.'' Bean revealed that there was also a nagging injury worry over the hero of Monday's victory, 20-year-old Bascome.

"Jenson has a tender right knee and he has to ice it every day when it gets sore, but I'm sure he'll pull through the week,'' said Bean.

The captain was not unduly worried by the heavy defeat against a Honduras team rated as the strongest in the seven-nation American Zone Group IV tournament.

"We expected our toughest challenge today and it was just unfortunate that Ricky was plagued by injury when playing against a guy he was capable of beating,'' said Bean.

"We feel we have played the two toughest teams first and with one win and one defeat we feel we still have a good chance of getting promotion.'' To make the jump to Group III, Bermuda have to finish in the top two.

Tomorrow they will play the US Virgin Islands, on Friday the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and they finish on Saturday against Antigua.

David Lambert, president of the Bermuda Lawn tennis Association, remained upbeat about the chances of promotion.

"We have Earl Leader with us and he's been doing a bit of scouting and we believe we've played the best teams here already so we are still hopeful of going up,'' said Lambert.

And he added that the score in the heavy defeat suffered by Collieson did not tell the full story.

"James was playing a very tough opponent and there were some long rallies -- he played well but just did not get the breaks.'' Ricky Mallory: forced to pull out with a painful neck injury.