Fourteen-year-old Em-Miryam Campbell-Smith had all to cheer about at the weekend (November 16-17) in the field of tennis.
A year after she held the record for the most titles for a TT player in the Central American and Caribbean Tennis Confederation (COTECC) region, the junior tennis ace played to a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 victory over Hulya Ozdogan of Weston Florida to claim the Girls’ 16 and Under title of the International Tennis Federation (ITF)/USTA Level 6 High-Intensity Tennis Training (HITT) at the Sunrise Tennis Club in Sunrise, Florida.
Campbell-Smith’s triumph propelled her to her highest career ranking in the ITF at 1905th as of November 11 this year. It is also her current rank, which makes her the only T&T player to win an ITF crown in the Central American and Caribbean regions.
Campbell-Smith, seeded number#2 in the tournament, played unbeaten in the lead-up to her title, defeating Nika Cakaric 8-2, Angelica Feliciano Fernandez 8-0 and Isabella Salamanca, the fourth-seeded player in the tourney, 8-3.
Campbell-Smith’s record for the most COTECC championships titles at seven, the most COTECC points for a TT player (630 points) that made her the second-highest TT player ever ranked in COTECC was special she said last year.
Only Jordane Dookie with a rank of 1511 surpasses Campbell-Smith on the ITF rankings for T&T players. Shiloh Walker is at third at 2560, with sisters Naomi and Lily Mohammed securing the fourth and fifth positions on 2674 and 2741, while Cameron Wong holds the sixth position at 2827.