FOUR Trinidad and Tobago players advanced to the “round of 16” in the Under-18 division when the Coca-Cola ITF (International Tennis Federation) Junior Tournament served off Tuesday in St Lucia.
Tobagonians Shania Millington and Kezia Koroma, the runner-up in the National Championships just over a week ago, made the perfect start as they did not allow St Lucians Jayda Hunte and Surabhi Gupta, respectively, a single game.
Dominique Coutain also advanced by beating Antiguan Noah Peters 6-4, 6-3, but Makalah Goodridge and Danielle Devenish were only able to win one game each from Antiguan D’Jeri Raymond and Dominique Maria Ong of the Philippines, respectively.
And Juliet Campbell failed to trouble the scorer against Cristina Rovira of the United States.
Breana Stampfli, who won her first ITF title three weeks ago in Jamaica and just failed to secure another doubles crown when she lost in the final the following weekend in Dominican Republic, is seeded second and got a bye into yesterday’s “round of 16”
Tobagonian Joshua Abraham, runner-up in the recent National Championships, was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Brazilian Cavalante Platzeck, but his twin brother Ty, a quarter-finalist in “Nationals”, defeated Tjimon Louisy 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.
Kryel Trim, the other T&T player in the main draw, was only able to win one game against Franz Luna of Guatemala.
Along with Anthony twins, Kristen and Kriston, Nabeel Mohammed, who reached the Under-16 quarter-finals of JITIC last week in Dominican Republic, was eliminated in the first round of qualifying.
But the national Under-16 and 18 champ was narrowly beaten 7-5 in the third set by Sam Burnette and the American not only went on to qualify, but also sent the No. 6 seed packing in straight sets on Tuesday.
In Under-14 first-round action, Anya King cruised past Vincentian Anastasia White 6-0, 6-2 and Candace Cook halted Amarlia Benn, also of St Vincent, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals.
Kobe James and Danyel Angus cruised past Antiguan Chad Joseph (6-0, 6-2) and Ethan Doctrove (6-3, 6-1) of Dominica, respectively, to reach the boys’ quarters, but Joshua Arnold was beaten 6-4, 6-3 by Mickel Alexander of Grenada 6-4, 6-3.