Afruica Gentle captures Antigua Junior Invitational title

May 10, 2013 Sports

Up and coming junior player Afruica Gentle stole the show at the Antigua’s Junior Tennis Invitational to claim the Girls 12 and under title. Afruica is the younger sister of former junior national champion Shawna Gentle.
She easily dispatched Jamaica’s Michaela Stephens 6-2, 6-2 in the finals on Sunday. The younger Gentle along with three other Guyanese junior players had to fight their way through the qualifying round of the tournament in

Afruica Gentle

order to make it, into the main draw.
Former National Under-12 winner Shivani Persaud, Keenan Persaud and Jordan Beaton were the other players on the team to Antigua. Keenan Persaud and Jordan Beaton were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Main Draw under 12 boys’ categories while Shivani Persaud made the semi-finals of the girl’s tournament.
The Antigua 12 and Under Junior tournament is referred to as the “Caribbean Junior Invitational”, where players from several Islands are invited to play, namely Trinidad, Jamaica, Grenada amongst others.
National Coach Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan, who accompanied the team stated that the players all played exceptional tennis for their age group but it was Gentle who stood out for the Guyanese Contingent.
Ramdyhan in reporting on the competition noted that “the players all found it a bit difficult to adapt to conditions at the start of the competition, due largely in part to their late arrival”. She said that the players took a bit of time to come to grips with the playing conditions.
We got into the hotel late the evening and then we had to play at 9:30 the following morning. With the little practice time we had about10-15 minutes, the kids performed creditable,” Ramdyhan stated.
She was high in praise for the two female players, young Persaud and Gentle who made the Semi Finals and Finals respectively.
“The main aim of this year’s international competitions but specifically the recent one is to work on the fitness of all players, since that was one of the downfalls for the junior players last year”. The national coach reported. She stated that “at last year’s Inter Guiana Games, players were unfit, out of sorts and un-adaptive to conditions, but more regional exposure would be great for the team as was shown by gentle”.
The tournament, a regular feature on the Antigua calendar featured a very high level of competition. The national junior coach highlighted that the win by Afruica Gentle has earned her an invitation into the Jamaican Junior Invitational in July.
The Association has also received a formal Invitation to the St Lucian Invitational. Along with that the association would be sending a strong contingent to the St Vincent Invitational.
This would be a great exposure of high level tennis for Gentle and the other players of whom would be selected for these oversees tournaments.
VP of the Association Grace McCalman congratulated Gentle on her victory and applauded the team on its performance.

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