Tennis Davis Cup: Having lost their opening two matches in the singles on Friday in Fitzwilliam, Ireland had been holed beneath the water-line in their efforts to maintain their European African zone group two status in the Davis Cup.

Struggling to match the Slovenians in what was a straight-forward relegation battle, having already lost to Finland a couple of months ago, Ireland finally slipped down into group three, when the doubles fixture on Saturday also fell to the visitors.

Despite the fact that the Irish pairing of James Cluskey and Kevin Sorensen led in the match 2-1, they finally lost 3-2 in a tight and competitive five sets. It was Cluskey's debut at international level but the Irish pair couldn't stop the Slovenian momentum and take the match into a third day. They narrowly fell 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to Luka Gregorc and Grega Zemija.

The Irish team showed plenty of fight and, even when Slovenia took an unassailable 4-1 lead in the fifth set, they continued to battle until the visitors, who eventually won it 7-5, confirmed their position in the group and send Ireland tumbling down.

It is not unfamiliar territory and a couple of years ago Ireland took the slide and had to play their way back into the group, which they successfully did.

The disappointment will be that as a home fixture it was expected the team would have an advantage against players ranked higher, but not significantly higher, than those in the Irish squad.

As a result of the 3-0 lead, yesterday's reverse singles were entirely academic. Conor Niland lost his match 6-4, 6-2 while Stephen Nugent earned Ireland's only win of the weekend over three sets, 6-1, 7-6, 6-1.

Ireland are to apply to the International Tennis Federation to host the event next year, as they did when Ireland earned promotion from the lower group last season.