The T&T girls' and boys' tennis teams both advanced to the quarterfinals of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Junior Tennis North/Central America and the Caribbean Pre-Qualifying Grade C Tournaments when action continued Wednesday.
This, despite the local girls losing to Puerto Rico in their Group D decider while the boys' team defeated Suriname in Group E play in San Tecla, San Salvador, El Salvador.
The local girls team of Lilly Mohammed, Madison Khan, and Cyra Ramcharan came up short against Puerto Rico 2-1.
Both T&T and Puerto Rico entered the three-team round-robin pool decider on the back of 3-0 wins against cellar-placed Jamaica.
Mohammed provided the Nabeel Mohammed-coached locals with the perfect start when she came from a set down to defeat Valentina Martin 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, but with a chance to close out the tie, Khan was blanked by Puerto Rico’s Valentina Fuentes 0-6, 0-6 to force the third and deciding doubles match-up which the Puerto Rican pair of Martin and Andrea Hiraldo won 6-0, 6-3 over Mohammed and Ramcharan as they took top spot in the pool with a 2-0 record, while T&T finished second to advance to the quarterfinals with a 1-1 record.
On Monday, in the win over Jamaica, Mohammed whipped Kashvi Deswani 6-0 6-3 and Khan defeated Jade Fearon 7-5, 6-2 while Mohammed and Ramcharan won 6-2, 4-6, 10-4 over Fearon and Alisha Chanchlani.
In the boys' competition, the T&T trio of Josiah Hills, Darius Rahaman and Nirav Doughdeen coached by Shenelle Mohammed ended in the second spot in Group E with a 2-1 record after beating Suriname to secure a quarterfinal spot behind pool winner Panama, who edged St Lucia 2-1, to finish with a 3-0 record.
This after, T&T swept past Suriname in their final round-robin contest yesterday with Rahaman trouncing Alexander Muringen 6-0, 6-0 and Dougdeen, a 6-2, 6-0 winner against Joel Tjin ahead of the doubles match-up.
Rahil Chablani is the other Suriname player.
On Tuesday against St Lucia, Rahaman was handed a win over Denney Estava after the latter retired with the score at one set all 4-6, 6-2 while Dougdeen beat St Lucia’s Alhil Cyril 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 to seal the tie 2-0 ahead of the doubles clash which Hills and Dougdeen won against Estava and Cyril 6-4, 6-0 while Panama blanked Suriname 3-0.
On Monday, when the tournament served off the T&T boys were beaten by Panama while St Lucia won by a similar 3-0 margin over Suriname.
Dougdeen suffered a 2-6, 4-6 loss against Ignacio Morales while Hills was overwhelmed 1-6, 4-6 by Bernardo Rodriguez in their respective singles matches before Dougdeen and Rahaman were outplayed by Morales and Juan Fernando Fondevilla 2-6, 4-6.
Following the end of the tournament on Saturday, the boys' and girls' winners will move on to the next phase of the qualifiers against Canada, Mexico and the USA, later this year.