ITF Junior Tennis Tournament concludes tomorrow

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Tennis Tournament concludes here tomorrow, Saturday, after eight days of competitive action at the National Tennis Centre at Villa.{{more}}

Tomorrow should see all four finals of the Under-18, which are the Boys Singles and Doubles as well as Girls’ Singles and Doubles.

Up to Wednesday, August 18, all the seeded players in the Boys’ category had advanced to the next phase of competition.

Trinidad and Tobago has dominated this age category with Dawoud Kabli, Vaughn Wilson, Seve Day and Luk De Caires all advancing, along with Italy’s Stefano Napolitano, Ibian Hodgson of Aruba, Srguello of Nicaragua, and Gino Meeuuwsen of the Netherlands.

Others through are the USA’s Lin Carter and Alex Fennell, T & T’s Jualon Greg, Lian Gomez, Keegan De Silva, Adrian De Silva, and Jovani Lewis, along with Russia’s Valeriy Preobrazhenskiy and Montel Taylor of the Bahamas.

Last Wednesday should have seen the Semi finals and Finals of the Under-14’s both Singles and Doubles.

Opened here last Saturday, there were 42 entrants in the Under-14’s and another 86 in the Under-18’s.

This is the fourth consecutive year that St. Vincent and the Grenadines has hosted this ITF sanctioned Junior Tournament.

Telecommunications Company Digicel was title sponsor in 2007 and 2008. However, since then, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tennis Association has been without a financial backer.

With much maneuvering, the National Lotteries Authority contributed $20,000 to the event last Tuesday, in addition to tents and chairs. Bronze sponsors for this event are C.K. Greaves and Company Ltd, with a contribution of $5,000 and Grassroots Tennis Club with a contribution of $2,000.

Other contributions have come from Digicel and Karib Cable, which have donated the use of their tents; Power Washing Service contributed the use of their equipment; St. Vincent Brewery Limited, which donated twenty cases of drinks; Mountain Top Springs Ltd.; Romeo’s Upholstery; Ellco Rentals Ltd.; and the Central Water and Sewerage Authority.

Sixteen countries are participating in the Tournament. They are Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, Germany, Grenada, Guyana, India, Italy, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Russia, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, the USA, and host St. Vincent and the Grenadines.