Four teams will Saturday (October 24), at the Trinidad Country Club in Maraval, begin a test-run for next year's National Junior Team Tennis League, an initiative of the Tennis Patrons Academy.
The tourney will comprise the top junior tennis players in the country, all placed in mixed (boys and girls) teams of six, and named after former tennis association officials who have passed on- Team Colleen De Gannes, Team Dave Patrick, Team Hayden Salim and Team Carlos Taylor.
The League will be run in a round-robin format and will today pit Hayden Salim's Team A, comprising Tim Pasea, Daniel Jeary, Jayden Mitchell, Nathen Martin, Zara Ghuran and Ella Carrington, against Dave Patrick's Team B of Beckham Sylvester, Kale Dalla Costa, Ethan Wong, Jaeda-Lee Daniel-Joseph, Ebolum Nwokolo and Gabriella Prince from 12 noon in the first set of singles rubber contests.
The action then continues at 2 pm with Carlos Taylor's Team C- featuring Liam Sheppard, Sebastien Sylvester, Luca Shamsi, Adam Wyatt, Aidan Carter and Gabby MacKenzie taking on Colleen De Gannes' Team D of Nathan Valdez, Aalisha Alexis, Cameron Wong, Shauna Valentine, Brian Harricharan and James Hadden.
The teams are all also equipped with captains with the tennis association's Public Relation's Officer (PRO), who is also a former national tennis standout, Carlista Mohammed appointed captain of team A, while Jerome Ward, Neil Lingo and Anthony Jeremiah, all former players in charge of teams B, C and D, respectively.
Competition for Saturday will conclude with Team A up against C at 4.30 pm, following which Team B will come up against D from 10 am, Sunday (October 25).
Mohammed in a release yesterday, said the aim of the event is to test the format to be used for the National Junior Team League which will be launched next year, as well as establish a standard for the effective operation of a tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic in a controlled environment.
Saturday
A vs B, 12 noon
C vs D, 2 pm
A vs C, 4.30 pm
Sunday
B vs D, 10 am
A vs D, 12 noon
B vs C, 2 pm
TEAM CAPTAINS
A- Carlista Mohammed
B- Jerome Ward
C- Neil Lingo
D- Anthony Jeremiah