WITH less than two hours of play on the final day, the four countries vying for the two  promotion spots from American Zone Group III of the Davis Cup were still in limbo by press time last night at Shaw Park, Tobago.

After not being a factor for the first five days of the tournament, rain came with a vengeance yesterday, forcing the referee to cancel the fixtures for fifth, seventh and ninth positions after the third interruption at about 3.30 p.m.

With a break in the weather about an hour-and-a-half later, officials were frantically drying the other two courts and the semi-finals were expected to resume shortly after press time.

Haiti were in fact just a set away from advancing to Group II as Oliver Sajous had won the opening set from Bahamanian Marvin Rolle after Gonzales Austin had rolled over Rodney Carey 6-3, 6-0 in the opening match.

Victory was also in sight for Guatemala as Julen Uriguen had trounced Costa Rican Pabo Nunez 6-3, 6-1 and then Christopher Diaz-Figueroa was also cruising with a 4-1 lead over Ignaci Roca.

The doubles would have only been contested if Bahamas and or Costa Rica were able to fight back and win the second singles.

Guatemala and Haiti both come out from the same round-robin group and tournament top seeds Guatemala scored a nail-biting 2-1 victory when they clashed Tuesday.

Hosts T&T also came out of Group A and after losing 3-0 to both Haiti and Guatemala, they were involved in the fifth-place playoff against Jamaica yesterday. And Liam Gomez was well on his way to drawing first blood for T&T as the United States-based 19-year-old was leading Daniel Harris 6-4, 3-1 when the fixture was cancelled.

Fellow three-time Davis Cup player Yohansey Williams was scheduled to play the other singles match, while Vaughn Wilson and debutant Luke De Caires was the doubles pair.

Honduras were leading Panama by a set and their Marco Osario was deadlocked at 3-3 with Walner Espinoza in the second in the playoff for seventh.

And Aruba's Gian Hodgson was leading Nicholas Bass of the United States Virgin Islands 6-2, 2-0 in the battle to avoid the tenth and final position. Neither country had won a fixture in the round-robin phase of the tournament.

The Davis Cup is the world's premier male team tennis tournament.'