Ireland’s slim chances of a Sunday turnaround faded at the National Indoor Arena on Sunday as China wrapped up a 3-1 win over the home side in their Davis Cup World Group II.

Having built up a 2-0 advantage in Saturday’s opening slate of singles action in Dublin, the visitors justified their favouritism when sealing victory at the earliest opportunity Sunday. 

RecentUniversity of Memphis graduate Connor Gannon and veteran teammate David O’Hare took on China’s Jie Cui and Fajing Sun fighting gamely to give the hosts a foothold but the class of the opponents ultimately told as a 6-2 7-5 win sealed the match victory for China. 

With things decided, there was one further singles match to be played. The still crowd were rewarded with a stellar display from Irish number one Michael Agwi, who showed tonnes of grit to put Ireland on the board with a consolation point thanks to a win over Sun. 

The 22-year-old, currently ranked 522nd in the world bounced back from a chastening 6-0 first set loss and took the calming words of captain Conor Niland on board as he took the second 6-2. The third set became a first-to-10 tie-break, and Agwi delivered in style to take the tie-break 10-5. 

Defeat leaves Ireland facing a World Group II play-off in February of next year to get another shot at progressing to Group I later in the year.