T&T boys and girls teams both ended in seventh spot after winning their final playoff matches in the ITF COTECC World Junior (Under-14) Tennis North/Central America & Caribbean Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Saturday.
In their playoff for the seventh spot, the Che-Sanchez-coached local boys' trio of Nirav Dougdeen, Connor Carrington and Jovan Garibana defeated Curacao, 2-1.
This after Carrington won his match, 6-1, 6-2, against Neevin Marcos and Dougdeeen was a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 winner over Brandon Bridgewater to seal the best-of-three matches series ahead of the doubles tie which the Curacao pair of Marcos and Leonardo Winkel won against Carrington and Garibana, 6-4, 6-2.
On Friday, in their fifth to eighth losers quarterfinal, Costa Rica defeated T&T boys 3-0 with Alberto Corrales whipping Garibana, 6-0, 6-2, and Alejandro Morales punishing Dougdeen, 6-1, 6-1, and in the doubles, Antonio Bermudez and Corrales swept past Garibana and Carrington, 6-2, 6-2.
When the main draw quarterfinals took place on Wednesday, Honduras defeated T&T 3-0 courtesy of Eduardo Matute's 6-0, 6-2 defeat of Carrington, Christofer Nunez's 6-2, 6-0 beating of Dougdeen and Nunez and Mario Nunez's 6-1, 6-0 win against Dougdeen and Garibana in the doubles contest.
In the other last-eight main draw match-ups, Guatemala won 3-0 over Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic also had a similar 3-0 triumph against Curacao while El Salvador battled past Costa Rica, 2-1.
In the other fifth-to-eight semifinals, Puerto Rico blanked Curacao 3-0 while in the main draw, Guatemala beat Dominica Republic and El Salvador stopped Honduras, both by 2-1 margins.
In their round-robin matches, the T&T boys defeated St Lucia and Jamaica both by 2-1 margins before losing by a 0-3 margin to Guatemala in their Group A decider.
The Shenelle Mohammed-coached T&T girls’ team of Em-Miryam Campbell-Smith, Gabriella Prince, and Madison Khan defeated Panama 2-0 in their clash for the seventh position.
In the opening tie, Khan provided her team with a winning start 6-0, 6-2 over Jessica Baez and Campbell-Smith won in similar fashion, 6-0, 6-2, against Romina Archibold while the doubles match was not played.
On Friday, in their fifth to eight losers semifinal, T&T suffered a 3-0 loss to Honduras with Khan falling to Marla Pinto 3-6, 3-6; and Campbell-Smith losing to Arianna Kafati 2-6, 6-7(3) before the local duo of Gabriella Prince and Khad were humbled in the Doubles, 1-6, 2-6 by Pinto, and Ana Belen Alvarado.
In the other fifth-to-eight semifinals, Dominican Republic won 2-0 over Panama while in the main draw, last-four Costa Rica defeated El Salvador 2-0 and Guatemala won 3-0 against Bahamas.
When the knockout stage served off, Bahamas beat the T&T girls 2-1 with Prince losing to Kayla Fox, 1-6, 6-4, 4-6 and Campbell-Smith coming up short against Tatyana Maduabuchukwu, 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, before the local pair of Khana and Prince won the doubles against Fox and Briana Houlgrave, 6-3, 6-2.
In the round-robin phase, T&T girls swept both Jamaica and Panama 3-0 to top their round-robin Group C standings.
Guatemala finished as the top team in both the boys’ and girls’ tournaments and secured qualification for the other Americas Tournament where Canada, Mexico, and the USA await in April from which the top two nations will advance to the world event.
Top Eight:
Boys: 1. Guatemala; 2. El Salvador; 3. Dominican Republic; 4. Honduras; 5. Costa Rica; 6. Puerto Rico; 7. T&T; 8. Curacao.
Girls: 1. Guatemala; 2. Costa Rica; 3. El Salvador; 4. Bahamas; 5. Honduras; 6. Dominican Republic; 7. T&T; 8. Panama
