Friday at the Shaw Park Courts in Scarborough, Tobago with Barbados,
represented by the team of Ilana Blackwood, Jaimie Lewis and Gabriel Taylor
together with coach Julian Baird placing joint third out of the ten participating regional nations.
Suriname’s Anjali Ramhit, the top seed took the Girl’s Singles title beating
second seed Ilana Blackwood in two straight sets 7-6 (4), 6-0. In the semifinals
played on Thursday, Ramhit also dismissed Blackwood’s team-mate Jaimie
Lewis 6-0, 6-2 while Blackwood got the better of another Surinamese player
Anouk Ma-Ajong 6-4, 6-2.
The same four girls would meet again in the girl’s doubles finals with the South
Americans coming out on top as the number one ranked pair of Ramhit and Ma-
Ajong took the crown ahead of Blackwood and Lewis 6-3, 6-1.
Gabriel Taylor the lone Barbados male player placed 14th in the boys section with
Blackwood in 2nd place and Lewis in 4th place in the overall girls singles positions.
Suriname was later named the top country among the 10 participating nations
with 34 points to finish ahead of Aruba (28) and Grenada, Barbados and St.
Lucia who all tied for third (19).
At the prior week’s Wilson/COTECC junior circuit tournament also played in
Tobago, Jaimie Lewis, the sole Barbadian competing in the under 14s, won the
Girls title. The thirteen year old, continuing her good form, defeated the number one seed, Trinidadian Emma-Rose Trestrail 6-2, 6-4 in the final. Lewis had previously won the U14 girls tournament held in St Lucia in early August.
Ilana Blackwood also won the under 14 girls singles title at the junior circuit
tournament held in St Vincent in mid August. Blackwood first defeated Chelsea
Haslam, of St Vincent 6-3, 6-4 and then went on to defeat the Guyanese no 1,
Nicola Ramdyhan 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the final. Blackwood again teamed up with
Jaimie Lewis in the doubles to reach the finals but they were defeated
6-4, 6-7, 7-10 by the Vincentian pair of Haslam and Denee Lyttle in a hard fought match.
In other International Tennis Federation (ITF) action in Tobago, Barbadian
Matthew Hutchinson and Grenadian Yannik James just missed out on a second
doubles title reaching the U18s doubles final for the 2nd successive week. They
narrowly lost in three sets to the two singles finalists, Malaysian Mohd Assri
Merzuki and Canadian William Tutecky, 6-2, 4-6, [4-10].
Other Barbadian juniors participated in the three ITF U18 tournaments in St
Lucia, St Vincent and Tobago with Melena Lopez, Cherise Slocombe, Kiana
Marshall and Ajani King all picking up wins and ITF junior ranking points.