Osenyonye N'wokolo and Shauna Valentine were the lone T&T players in winner's row on the opening day of the Main Draw of Monday's J5 Tacarigua, International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Tour at the National Racquet Centre (NRC) in Tacarigua.
Valentine, one of the first players to take the courts at 9 am, featured against the Kianna King of Antigua, with five of her teammates playing simultaneously on adjacent courts.
However, Valentine showed little fear and battled to a 7-6 6-2 triumph over her counterpart. Two hours later N'wokolo stepped on to court 12 and took an early advantage 6-4 against Anastasia Natasha White of St Vincent and the Grenadines. However, White stormed back in the second set to level the scores at one-apiece with a 7-5 victory. But N'wokolo would not be denied victory as she claimed the deciding set 6-4 and keep the T&T flag flying high.
Thereafter, it was poor news for the local players. Ella Carrington (TT) who faced Sifa Butcher of the United States on court five, perished in straight sets 6-0, 6-0: Charlotte Ready retired hurt against Sanaa Hewitt of Barbados: Adalia Badroe went down to Chloe Weeks (Barbados) 6-0, 6-1: Kryshelle Cudjoe was beaten by Gabrielle Leslie 6-0, 6-0: Maria Honore was defeated by Cadence Brace (Canada) 6-0, 6-0: Liam Sheppard went down to Maxim Mareschal-Hay (Canada) 6-2, 6-1: Ethan Wong losing to Freddie Ridout of Great Britain 6-2, 6-2: and Dunstan Alijah Leslie falling to Chukwudumebi Smarty of the USA 6-1, 6-0.
Meanwhile, there were also losses for T&T's Nicholas Ready going down to Paul Colin of France 6-1, 6-0: Ebolum N'wokolo losing to Noah Eisenberg of the United States 6-1, 6-1: Isabel Abraham went down to Selene Kentish (Antigua) 7-6(0), 6-2: Kimberly Sabga was beaten by Audrey Moutama (France) 6-0, 6-0: Victoria Koylass was defeated by Morgan Mc Carthy 6-0, 6-1 (USA): Aralia Blackman loses to Pauline Alvarez (Mexico) 6-0, 6-0: Jade Ali was beaten by Cherysh Henry (USA) 6-1, 6-0: Sebastian Sylvester loses to Grant Lumkong (USA) 6-0, 6-0: and Curt Seifert of Barbados reigned supreme over Sebastian Byng 6-3, 6-2.
Among the seniors on the ITF Seniors Circuit, Peter Moore defeated fellow Trinbagonian Narad Ramsingh in straight sets 6-2, 6-4. Gary Siewdass was also successful over Ainsley Guppy in another all-local affair. Kendall Cuffy needed little time and effort to see off Winston John 6-0, 6-1 while Rickey Villaroel didn't drop a game in his 6-0, 6-0 victory over Nigel Horsford.