The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net Just days away from championship weekend, one of the Bahamas' leading junior tennis players remains in contention for an ITF tournament title. Yesterday, Kevin Major Jr advanced to the quarterfinals of the boys' main draw by defeating Martin Beran of Canada in straights sets 6-4, 6-4 at the National Tennis Centre. Major Jr will face Runhao Hua of China in the second match on court one today, immediately following the girls' semifinal match which is slated to begin at 9am. Tournament director Stephen Turnquest said the Bahamian players have held their own on the hard court in the keenly contested tournament. "The level of competition has been great. We have players from about 30 countries and everyone has been performing well. We have had a number of players from the Bahamas that have performed exceptionally well. We had five boys that made it to the main draw and four of them went to the second round and we have Kevin moving on even further," he said. "It is really unprecedented for us to have that many players in the boys draw advance that far. The ranked players from all over the world were ranked from the lower 200s to about 1,500s on the ITF junior rankings. The competition was very keen and they gave a good account of themselves." A total of 11 players were listed in both the boys' and girls' main draw. Jody Turnquest fell in the second round of the boys' draw when he lost to Matthew Erdman of Canada 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-5. Gabrielle Moxey was the lone female player to reach the second round when she defeated American Kandis Legall 7-5, 6-3. She was denied a trip to the quarterfinals when she fell to American Mary Haffey, 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday.