Tobagonian advances to SVG Boys U-14 junior tennis final

Mendes registered his most convincing of the tournament in the semi-final, taking care of local favourite Jymaun De Roche of SVG in straight sets.

Mendes, the Under-12 champion at the Coca Cola ITF Tournament in St Lucia last year, lost just one game in the match as he strolled to a 6-1, 6- 0 win.

Mendes had beaten Bajan Dylan Hall 7-5, 6-1 in the quarter-final after eliminating second seed Scott Harford of Grenada 6-1, 6-2 in the first round.

Meanwhile, TT’s Scott Lanser lost in two sets to Elvin in the other semi-final to end all hopes of an all-TT final. Elvin won the match easily 6-3, 6-1.

In Under-18 action, there are four TT players in the last eight of the Boys Singles division. Sixth seed Luke De Caires came from a set down to beat Bahamian Shaquille Montel Taylor and book his spot in the quarter-final of the competition.

De Caires lost the first set on tie-breaks 6-7 (1) but shook off the disappointment to claim the next two in style 6-0, 6-2. De Caires will meet Tobago’s Adrian De Silva for a place in the semi-final.

De Silva needed just two sets to beat second seed Gino Meeuwsen of the Netherland Antilles for the second time in two weeks. De Silva, who came from a set behind to defeat Meeuwsen in the opening round of the Coca Cola ITF Tournament in St Lucia last week, showed that his victory then was no fluke as he prevailed 7-5, 6-4.

The match between De Caires and De Silva is expected to be keenly contested although De Caires is ranked almost 280 places higher by the ITF. De Silva, 15 years old, beat De Caires 6-4, 7-5 in the final of the Sagicor Boys’ Under-18 Singles in June and would be optimistic of getting past his more illustrious compatriot again.

Third seed Vaughn Wilson is in the quarter-final as well after TT’s Jualon Greig retired from their match with the score 6-2 in favour of Wilson.

The Tobagonian will now face Aruba’s Ibian Hodgson who won a nail-biting match against TT’s Liam Gomez in the round of 16. Hodgson, the fifth seed, pipped the US-based Gomez 7-6 (6) in the opening set and with the second set going to tie-breaks as well he came out on top 7-6 (5) to send the TT player crashing out.

TT’s other representative in the “quarters” is Keegan De Silva who was victorious in a three setter with fourth seed Ernesto Arguello of Nicaragua.

Keegan, who entered the draw as a “wild card”, took the lead with a 6-3 win in the first set but the Nicaraguan clawed his way back to level the match at 3-6 in the next set.

Keegan sealed his passage to the next round as he grabbed the decisive set 6-4. The 17-year-old will do battle with American Alex Fennell who crushed eight seed Seve Day in two 6-2, 6-0. Fennell was a Singles finalist at the Coca Cola Tournament in St Lucia and should prove a handful for Keegan.

Also missing out on a place in the last eight was TT’s Dawoud Kabli who went under 6-4, 6-3 to Iain Sneddon Jr of Canada.

Meanwhile, Breana Stampfli was the only TT player to get into the quarter-final of the Girls’ Singles with a come-from-behind win against eight seed Stacey Roheman of St Lucia.

Stampfli, the Tennis TT Girls’ Under-14 top player for 2009, lost the opener 4-6 but rallied to take the next two 6-4, 6-4 and roll into the “quarters” where she faces the daunting task of getting past the top ranked Nelo Phiri of the USA.

Phiri copped the Singles and Doubles crown in St Lucia and is the favourite to claim two titles in SVG as well.

Tranquillity Open champ and seventh seed Lee-Anne Lingo was eliminated in the round of 16 in straight sets by Bahamian Chelsi Russell 6-3, 6-4.

In Doubles action, the TT pair of Seve Day and Vaughn Wilson knocked out TT’s Luke De Caires and his partner Ryan Newman of the USA 6-4, 6-4 to progress to the quarter-final.

Jualon Grieg and Javier Lewis are in the “quarters” as well, getting past SVG’s Rafai Bentick and Jrai De Silva 7-6 (3), 6-0. Number three seeds Liam Gomez and Jabrille Kabli moved into the next round with a 6-0, 6- 1 win over the hometown pair of Kevin Huggins and Richard Michael Macleish. Keegan De Silva and Adrian De Silva were the only TT players not to get in the “quarters”, losing to the top pair of Gino Meeuwsen of the Netherland Antilles and Italian Stefano Napolitano 6- 2, 6-1.