The Guyanese junior tennis players recorded a rough first day outing of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Championship in Jamaica yesterday.
The boys had a fair share of ups and down with Heimraj Resaul being the only winner for Guyana in the singles category. Resaul defeated Grenada’s Charlton Dottin 6-2, 6-0, stamping his dominance as he did in the second round of the qualifying draw against Dottin, winning 6-2, 6-2.
In the singles, Jordan Beaton was unable to get past Jamaica’s number one ranked junior, Damani Cain, going down 6-0, 6-1 while Viraj Sharma and Mark McDonald lost to USA’s Quinn McLeod and China’s Fnu Nidunjianzan respectively by 6-0, 6-0 margins in both instances.
McDonald was defeated by Joshua Miller in the second round of the qualifying draw while Ariel Khan suffered the same fate in the first round losing to Jonathan LaForest.
Beaton and Resaul partnered in the doubles draw but were no match for Blaise Bicknell of USA and Nicholas Gore of Jamaica as they lost 6-1, 6-2. Sharma teamed up with Uganda’s Joshua Kalekyezi to face Donte Armbrister and Sebastian Azcui while McDonald paired with Cole McNair as the Guyanese boys exited early.
In the female division, Afruica Gentle fought valiantly in the first set but lost 6-3 and the second set 6-0 to USA’s Maya Pitts while Margaret Subryan lost to Japans Remika Ohashi 6-0, 6-0.
Kalyca Fraser was the outstanding performer for the Guyanese, winning 7-5 in the first round against Jamaica’s Kailey Chin who retired in the second set with the match already 4-0.
In the doubles, Jamaican duo Aanchal Khemlani and Raccine Malcolm gave a walkover to Gentle and Jamaica’s top seed Michaela Stephens while Fraser and Subryan lost to Gabriella Broadfoot and Gabriela Singer 6-0, 6-0.
