Jamaica secure 12 & under Caribbean tennis champs
JAMAICA defeated The Bahamas 3-0 to win the International Tennis Federation English Caribbean Wilson 12 and Under Central America and the Caribbean Tennis Confederation Team Championships for girls in St Lucia last week.
It was the first victory for Jamaica in the tournament and the win could be considered sweet revenge for last year’s 3-0 defeat by The Bahamas.
The boys’ team that also lost in the finals to Bahamas last year, finished third.
The tournament was played among 11 Caribbean countries competing for the top three places. The countries included Antigua, Barbados, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Curacao, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. Each tie was made up of two singles matches and one doubles match.
The Jamaican girls’ team of Michaela Stephens and Jenna Harrison earned their place and kept advancing through the rounds by beating Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia in the preliminaries. They then returned later in semi-final play to see off Suriname 3-0 to reach the finals.
From then on the Jamaican girls produced strong and steady tennis in both singles and doubles play to defeat Donesha Wilson and Emma Weech of The Bahamas 3-0.
According to coaches Judith Harrison and Llockett McGregor, both Harrison and Stephens brought a high standard of tennis to the tournament that enabled them to win all their singles and doubles matches to place first overall in the tournament. Stephens received the MVP award for girls in the tournament.
The boys’ team of Damani Cain and John Chin were reported to have fought gallantly and won a well-earned third place. They defeated both St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname by 3-0 margins, then went on to chisel a hard-earned 2-1 victory against Curacao to take the overall third place position in the tournament.
The Bahamas team of Jacobi Bain and Kofi Bowe defeated Bermuda 2-1 in the boys’ final to take first place.
The top three finishers in the tournament will now move on to participate in the Regional Masters Under-12 Event scheduled to be played in Mexico from November 1-7 later this year.
The Under-12 Tennis Masters will provide the top-three Caribbean countries with the opportunity to compete against the top countries from Central America, South America and Mexico.
