The trio of Kale Dalla Costa, Nirav Doudgeen and Josiah Hill all won their matches to remain in the mix to top their round-robin groups when the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour Juniors J60 Under-18 Tournament continued at the National Racquet Centre, Orange Grove Road, Tacarigua, on Tuesday.
The winner of his opening day in Group G over Barbadian Tyler Davis 6-1, 6-3, Dalla Costa made it two wins on the trot in his four-team pool by hammering Colombian Juan Sebastian Monroy Rojas 6-0, 6-0 to set up a group decider with USA’s Levi Sevim who also won for the second time in the group, beating Davis 6-2, 6-2.
This after Dougdeen rebound in Group E from his loss to Barbadian Dimitri Kirton 6-4, 6-7(8), 2-10 by battling past Norway’s Nicolas Rydholt 6-2, 6-7(5), 10-3 to keep alive his hopes of topping the group to advance ahead of his meeting with fifth-ranked Paul Croisy of France who won again, 6-1, 6-3 over Kirton.
In Group A, Mitchell, who won his Caribbean clash with Barbadian Travis Licorish on Monday, 6-0, 6-3, was defeated by US Virgin Islands’ Yared Alfred 0-6, 3-6 and must defeat USA’s Nicolas Pedraza, who stayed unbeaten in the group courtesy his 6-1, 6-0 whipping of Licorish.
Hills will also go into his final match in Group F in with a chance of moving on after he overcame a 6-3, 1-6, 5-10 loss to Emryk Crete of Canada on Monday with a tense 7-6(7), 3-6, 10-6 defeat of Brazilian Diego Valpereiro while Crete dismissed winless Barbadian Zach King 6-4, 6-4.
The other T&T players in action all suffered second defeats in their respective matches to end their chances of advancing to the main draw knockout stage.
In Group B, with El Salvador’s Mateo Guitterez winning yet again, 6-1, 7-6(9) over USA’s Michael Berger, while second-ranked Czech Republic’s Nicolas Moravec handed T&T’s Jaiden Gormandy a 6-2, 6-0 loss.
Colombian Geronimo Montoya Perez handed local Jack Brown his second loss 6-1, 6-0 in Group C, and USA’s David Beckles, ranked third, also moved to a 2-0 record after topping Ecuadoran William Jesus Hernandez Ramirez 6-2, 6-3.
In Group D, T&T’s Christopher Khan put up a valiant effort before going under to fourth-ranked Switzerland’s Hector De Couland 7-6 (2), 4-6, 2-10 while USA’s David Bvunzawabaya III rallied past Barbadian Ammon Archer 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 and in Group H, Canada’s Xavier Hastick, seeded eighth handed T&T’s Novak Malcolm his second loss in as many matches, 6-0,6-0 and France’s Zach Jenoudet battled past USA’s Nirbhay Agarwal 4-6, 6-2, 12-10.
This year’s tournament for the boys is being held using a new format from the ITF for the J30 and J60 levels, whereby the first round is contested via a round-robin comprising four players, at the end of which the top player in each group will advance to the main draw quarterfinal knockout stage.
T&T girls blanked in round-of-16
The T&T quintet of Cyra Ramcharan, Shiloh Walker, Lilly Mohammed, Reena Dougdeen, and Madison Khan were all ousted in their respective round-of-16 matches yesterday.
Ramcharan went under to fifth-ranked USA’s Briana Houlgrave 3-6, 4-6; Walker was no match for fourth-ranked Mildalyn D’Aguilar of the USA and bowed out 0-6, 0-6; Mohammed was ousted by USA’s Grace Dollar, ranked eighth, 1-6, 0-6; Dougdeen was trounced by second-ranked Daphne Lovdahl of Great Britain, 0-6, 0-6, and Khan suffered a 1-6, 0-6 loss to Australian third-ranked player, Taylor Burke.
In the other matches, top-ranked Mexican Romina Garcia blanked Ecuador’s Mia Leo Rivera 6-0, 6-0; Canada’s sixth-ranked Ava Sanicharan dumped Ecuador’s Luciana Serrano 6-0, 6-1; Canada’s Anvika Saraswathi edged past Turkey’s Ipek Oncu 6-4, 6-4. The tournament resumes from 9 am Wednesday.
