Last year's Under 18 champions Nabeel Mohammed and Emma Rose Trestrail will have their work cut out for them when they set out to defend their titles at this week's Sagicor Junior Tennis Tournament at the Eddie Taylor Public Courts in St Clair. Fresh from their CXC exams, both players will be eager to get in some competitive tennis after months of hitting the books.
Mohammed, who will face a strong field including Scott Hacksaw and Nkrumah Patrick, said the demands of his studies had left him with little time to prepare."I haven't been training that much," he admitted. "I'm hoping that experience can pull me through."Despite his rustiness, the 16-year-old managed a 6-0, 6-2 win over Timothy Davis in his opening game on Sunday. Looking ahead, he said he did not want to take any matches lightly.
"I just go out on the court and play every point one at a time. I take every match seriously," he said. "There are a lot of good players in this group and everybody is always training and improving. It's anybody's game."He singled out Hackshaw as his main competition."I've won all three of our past meetings," he said. "But you never know."
Meanwhile, Trestrail revealed she had taken up an intense training regimen following the end of her exams last month."I'm not in school anymore so I've been training morning and night to prepare for this tournament," she said. "I've been a finalist in a few tournaments this year when I was couldn't train as much as I would have liked but hopefully in this tournament will be different."
Like Mohammed, she was also expecting a lot of hard work over the next week."Every player in this category is competition because everybody has a different style and will pose a different type of challenge. I just want to play the best tennis that I can."Yesterday's play was badly affected by rain with less than a quarter of the scheduled 63 matches being completed by press time.
Yesterday's Results:
Boys Under 18 Round Robin
Clint Singh bt Timothy Davis 6-3, 6-4, Ryan Thomas bt Gianluc Robinson 6-3, 6-0, Brandon Gregorie bt Khaleel Hamid 6-2, 6-0, Scott Hackshaw bt Adam De Freitas 6-0, 6-3
Boys Under 16 Round Robin
Aidan carter bt aaron Chan 6-1, 6-3
Boys Under 10 Round Robin
Bechham Sylvester bt Geron Eudoxie 6-1, Alexander Chin bt Javden Mitchell 2-3, Declan Sheppard bt Dominique D'Arcy 6-3