Davis Cup juniors advance to quarters

T&T swept past US Virgin Islands 3-0 in their Group B final round match to advance to the quarterfinals of the Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas North/Central American & Caribbean Pre-Qualifying campaign in El Salvador, yesterday.

Following their 2-1 win over Bahamas on Tuesday to stay alive in the tourney, the T&T Under-16 boys team coached by Dunstan Denoon was in a confident mood against the winless USVI and got a winning start from Nabeel Mohammed who brushed aside Julian Dipersio, 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 23 minutes for a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.

Elan Murray-Mendes then secured the tie for T&T with a similar straight forward 6-3, 6-1 whipping of USVI’s Jordan Lawrence in 85 minutes before Mohammed paired with Jelani Davidson to win the doubles, 6-0, 6-0 over Lawrence and Wilbur Williams in 45 minutes.

With the win, the fifth seeded T&T ended with a 2-1 record in the four-team group and second to second ranked tournament seeds, Costa Rica which won, 2-1 over Bahamas. 

In the quarterfinal round, T&T will face Group D winners’, third ranked El Salvador defeated sixth ranked Honduras, 2-1 on Monday and followed up by trouncing Curacao, on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, T&T won just three games more than Bahamas in its 2-1 victory with T&T’s Elan Murray-Mendes and Nabeel Mohammed beating Joshua Turnquest and Shannon Francis, who had levelled the tie with a win over Murray-Mendes in the second rubber, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2.

Mohammed had won the opening tie for T&T with a 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 beating of Turnquest before Francis turned back Murray-Mendes, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-4.

In yesterday’s other completed match, Dominican Republic defeated Bermuda 2-1 to end with a 2-0 record in Group A and ahead of Guatemala (1-1); while in Group C, Nicaragua faced Puerto Rico, and Panama battled Suriname; and in Group D, Curacao met Honduras, and El Salvador tangled with Barbados. 

The winner of the 15-team tournament will qualify for the North/Central American & Caribbean Final Qualifying event in Montreal on May 2-4.

Other results:

Monday:
Group A: Guatemala bt Bermuda 3-0
Group B: #2 Costa Rica bt # 5 T&T 3-0; Bahamas bt US Virgin Islands 3-0
Group C: # 7 Nicaragua bt # 4 Panama 2-1; Puerto Rico bt Suriname 3-0
Group D: # 3 El Salvador bt # 6 Honduras 2-1; Barbados bt Curacao 2-1

Tuesday:
Group A: #1 Dominican Republic bt Guatemala 3-0.
Group B: #2 Costa Rica bt US Virgin islands 3-0; #5 T&T bt Bahamas 2-1
Group C: #4 Panama bt Puerto Rico 2-1; #7 Nicaragua bt Suriname 3-0
Group D: #3 El Salvador bt Curacao 3-0; #6 Honduras bt Barbados 3-0