Aaniyah Ramdeen pulled off two wins on Sunday in the girls' Under-13 division to plant herself on firm footing on the opening day of the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Junior Tournament at the South Sound Squash Club in the Cayman Islands.
Ramdeen was the only T&T player to have won twice up to the early afternoon period after a series of mixed results by her compatriots. Ramdeen had a good start at the CASA in the British Virgin Islands last year, and yesterday she had an equally convincing start to her campaign, brushing aside Barbados' Peyton Marshall-Brancker in straight sets 3-0 (11-0, 11-8, 12-10) in the round robin affair.
Moments later, Ramdeen boosted her confidence even further in a battling 3-2 triumph over Zoey McDonald of Guyana. In that contest, Ramdeen went behind early when McDonald held her off 11-8.
The rising T&T talent later prevailed in the second set 11-5 to knot up the score at one apiece, but the Guyanese responded positively in the third set by beating the Trinbagonian a second time in the contest by a similar 11-5 margin.
The final two sets made the difference in the match, with Ramdeen holding off her counterparts 11-8 and 11-5 to seal the overall win three games to two.
Both Josie Thong and Gia Ghuran enjoyed singular wins in the girls' U-17 and girls' U-13 divisions, respectively. Thong, who captured three national titles at the Sunshine Snacks National Junior Squash Championships at the Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPCC) Indoor Racquet Centre, Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair, Port-of-Spain last year, was at her very best to turn back Jamaica's Rhina Stoddart 3-0 (11-6, 11-3, 11-1), while Ghuran dropped one set against Taylor Kyme before providing an exhibition of her powers on the affair, winning 11-1, 11-6, 6-11, 11-3 for a 3-1 triumph.
Coen Mack had a win-loss record at the end of the first day in the boys' U-13. First, he proved to be no class for Finn Graham as he was swept aside 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-7), however, Mack, the winner of Division B of last year's Junior Grade Squash tournament at Queen's Park Oval by beating Olivia Allum in the final 3-0, stormed back in another game against Ethan Webster of St Vincent and the Grenadines, winning 3-0 (11-4, 11-4, 11-5) in the contest.
Meanwhile, Nixon Callender II failed to get off the mark on the day, going down to Maximillian Woolf 3-0 (11-2, 11-3, 11-9) and then later to Jakob Noblett by the same margin 3-0 (11-4, 11-3, 11-4) in the boys' U-15 division.
Nicholas Lequay also had a win-loss record after yesterday. His first encounter with Barbados' Dominic Wilson ended disastrously with the Bajan prevailing in the boys' U-19 category 11-8, 11-2 and 11-5.
Lequay picked himself up in a later contest by beating Shiloh Asregado 3-1 (11-5, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7).
