The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association’s junior national team got off to a great start on day one of the North Central American and Caribbean Pre- Qualifying World Junior Tennis Tournament yesterday in Santa Tecla, El Salvador.

While a boys and girls team is representing the country in the week-long event, only the boys were in action in the under-14 tournament that is played with two singles and a doubles match to determine the winner.

The boys’ team, coached by Bradley Bain, pulled off a 3-0 decision over Honduras in their opening match. They are the top seeded team in Group C, but fourth overall behind the Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Guatemala.

In their matches, William McCartney got past Julio Gom 6-1, 6-4 in a match that lasted one hour and 20 minutes. The other singles saw Jackson Mactaggart going 1:25 before he prevailed with a 7-6 (6), 7-0 win over Adrian Mateo Bustamante. And in the doubles competition, Mactaggart teamed up with Jerald Carrol for a 6-2, 6-1 win over Gom and Eduardo Matute in 57 minutes. “It was a good start,” Bain said. “William McCartney played well in the first set, but struggled a little bit in the middle of the second set, but was able to close it out. Jackson Mactaggart, our top player, played a tight match. He was down 5-3, but came back and tied it and forced a tie breaker. He had a pretty good finish and in the second set, he stuck to the plan and just rolled out his opponent.”

As for the doubles, the Bahamian team took control of the match at the net and made it look so easy.

The team will be off today, but will return to the court on Wednesday to face Barbados, who will take on Honduras today.

“I like our chances,” Bain said. “I always like our chances against the Caribbean team, always because I find the Central American countries and the Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean are pretty tough. They always have good programmes.”

As the fourth seeds in the tournament, Bain said the least he expects the team to reach is the quarterfinals.

“With the group of boys I have, if they play up to their potential, we should have an opportunity to get to the final, but it’s not going to be easy,” he said.

Meanwhile, the girls’ team had the day off yesterday and will begin competition today when they take on Costa Rica, who blanked Honduras 3-0 in their initial match yesterday.

The Bahamas team, coached by Paula Whitfield, consists of Rachel Thompson, Sarai Clarke and Breann Ferguson. They are also playing out of Group C as the No.2 seeds behind Costa Rica.

BLTA president Perry Newton has high expectations for the team this week.

“Both the boys and girls teams are talented with a mix of first time players representing on the national level as well as a few players that have represented the country,” Newton said. “I am especially excited for the new players as COVID-19 has stolen two years of international representation from them. We anticipate a very strong showing from both teams.”

Newton said the boys’ team set the tone for the tournament with their sweep over Honduras and he’s looking forward to similar results tomorrow as the girls take the court.

“It’s my prayer that the team will stay focused, play hard, have some fun and return home safely and advance to the next event,” Newton summed up.

The winner of the tournament will advance to the next round in Mexico in May where they get a chance to play against the United States, Mexico and Canada for two qualifying spots to play in the World Championships for Under- 14s in Europe.

“We have yet to get a team to go that far, but this team has the potential to do it,” Bain said.

“These players have a lot of experience. Jackson Mactaggart has played all over the world and William McCartney and Jerald Carrol are now training in the US, so they are getting lots of match play. So if they play up to their potential, we have the opportunity to go very deep into this tournament,”

It’s the first national team that the BLTA has sent off so far this year.

The BLTA is now preparing for the ladies and men’s teams to compete in the Billie Jean King Fed Cup and the Davis Cup competition. The dates and venues have not yet been released, nor the final selection for Team Bahamas.