TENNIS Jamaica has sent a strong team to the 2018 COTECC Under-12 Tennis Tournament to be held in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, which begins today and runs through to Saturday.

The boys’ team comprises Kaiel Casserly, Matthew James and Jamar Parkinson, while the girls’ team is made up of Alyssa James and Eva Pinchas.

Both teams will be accompanied by coaches Damion Johnson for the boys and Tinesta Rowe for the girls. The contingent left the island yesterday.

Tennis Jamaica, through its development programme, had organised intensive training sessions which included mental toughness, doubles training, fitness and match play to get the players fully prepared for competition.

According to Aswad Morgan, president of Tennis Jamaica, “Tennis Jamaica is making a concerted effort to changing the mindset of our players, and our general approach to a more high-performance approach.”

“If we can professionalise our approach, players will likely approach their matches in the same way and we can expect better results. This template will be used for all teams with significant tweaking to be done as we go along. Jamaica has a very bright future in these young kids and we will do the best we can to ensure they become world beaters,” Morgan said.

Morgan noted that countries such as The Bahamas, the Cayman Island, Cuba, Haiti, Bermuda, Puerto Rico and host county Dominican Republic are also competing.

He said the winning team will then qualify for the International Tennis Federation (ITF)/COTECC Under-12 team finals to be held next month.

Morgan further commented, “Should Jamaica win; we intend on sending our winning team, barring injuries or sickness.

“We are blooding our players very early as this is a great opportunity for them to represent their country and a likely life-changing experience for them. Tennis Jamaica has crafted a strategic development plan with a keen focus on junior development and infrastructure,” said Morgan.