‘Good show’, says Mc Kenzie

President of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tennis Association (SVGTA), Anthony Mc Kenzie said that this country was able to put on a good show, in its fifth hosting of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Tournament, at the National Tennis Centre at Villa.{{more}}

The 2011 edition, which was sponsored by First Citizens Investment Services, Mc Kenzie said was an overall success, when he spoke to SEARCHLIGHT last Saturday.

“Everything went well, in terms of the logistics; we were able to handle that well, as there were more persons coming on board to volunteer their time,”said Mc Kenzie.

“It was probably our biggest tournament, as there were over 300 persons who came in: the players, their coaches and other family members, who occupied most of the hotels in the Villa area,” Mc Kenzie added.

The intended one-week tournament, though, had to be cut short by one day, and finished last Friday, instead of Saturday, due to the pending weather conditions and was fast tracked, as many of the players had to go off to Tobago, to be part of a tournament there, which served off last Saturday.

The local Tennis boss said that his association was given good reviews by the ITF officials who were here.

But the SVGTA President is concerned with the standard of play of the Vincentians who participated in the tournament.

“Our local players need to improve in their play, as all did not make it past the first round”, Mc Kenzie said.

In the Main Draw of the Boys Under-18 Singles, Marley Young, Rafai Bentick, Darrell Franklyn, Julio Francis and Jonathan Perry took early exits; so too did Olivia Haslam, among the girls in that age group.

The Vincentians who contested in the Main Draw of the Wilson COTECC Under-14 suffered a similar fate, as Imani King and Denee Lyttle got bumped after their first match.

Another of Mc Kenzie’s concerns is the state of the courts at the centre.

“We have some aging courts which are in fact eleven years old, and they are in dire need of repairs,” Mc Kenzie lamented.

But it was American Jared Donaldson who upstaged the number one seed in the Boys Under-18, Vicente Bronstein of Chile, defeating him, 6-4, 7-5.

In the Girls Under-18, the winner was Simone Pratt of the Bahamas, who maintained her number one status, winning 6-3, 6-1, over Madison Bourguignon of the USA.

Winning the COTECC Girls Under-14 was Barbadian Aretta Dey who whipped Guyanese Nicola Ramdyhan 7-6, 6-3, in the final.

And, in an all Barbadian final, Dylan Hall was victorious over Gavin Hutchinson 6-1, 6-2.

The Tournament Directors were Samantha Goodluck and Onike Span, with Colleen De Gannes, the COTECC Supervisor and Anthony Jameson, the ITF Referee.

The participating countries were Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Chile, Germany, Grenada, Guyana, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, the USA and host St. Vincent and the Grenadines. (RT)