Jamaica’s top-ranked tennis players will face off in the 2016 Liguanea Club Tennis Tournament which kicked off on Monday night at the Liguanea Club in New Kingston.

Reigning national men’s champion and number one seed Damion Johnson is favoured to win the competition, which will see 32 players doing battle for top honours. However, number two seed Dwayne Pagon also has a good chance of taking the title. Jeremy Miller and Yussuf Migoko, who are seeded third and fourth, respectively, are also in contention and either player could upset the pecking order.

In the amateur competition, reigning National Class Two champion Leighton Burton is tipped for the win, but Stephen Todd, Scott Jones and Rafael Romero are also strong contenders.

For the 2016 tournament, leading petroleum products dealers Total and UHY Dawgen Chartered Accountants have come on board as headline sponsors. Tournament Director Llockett McGregor said, “We have strong sponsorship support and very competitive draws in both the open and the amateur competitions, so we expect to have an excellent tournament and week of exciting tennis.”

In early-round action in the open draw Monday night, Carlos Phillpots beat Myles Harrison 6-2, 6-3; Mivkel Riley defeated Alric Sproul 6-2, 6-1; and John Azar stopped Daniel Hill 6-3, 6-2. In the amateur competition Jermaine Case beat Orville Mattherson 4-6, 6-4, 10-5.

The open competition continued yesterday with Damion Johnson taking on Gregory Spencer, Jeremy Miller matching skills with Stefan Wilson, and Yussuf Migoko going up against Carlos Phillpots. In amateur action, Leighton Burton was scheduled to play Pawan Bhushan, Stephen Todd was to go head-to-head with Marlon Hosang, and Scott Jones was down to play Alric Sproul.

The 2016 Liguanea Club Tennis Tournament runs through to Friday. In addition to Total and UHY Dawgen, tournament sponsors include Avis, Lifespan, KLAS ESPN Sports FM, Epic Technologies, and Cari-Med.