THE COMPASS NORTH AMERICAN IC JUNIOR CHALLENGE
Bahamas Team : Donte Armbrister, Jacobi Bain, Sydney Clarke, Elena Mackey
In the final days play in Mexico City when it came down to the match between The Bahamas and The USA to determine the winner of The North American IC Junior Challenge The USA proved to be the stronger team. So The Bahamas takes second place and The USA will go to The Worldwide Finals in Tokyo, Japan next October along with Italy, India, South Africa, Uruguay and Japan.
In the early matches Jacobi Bain playing at boys number two won his opening match and Elena Mackey lost to level at 1 match each. Sydney Clarke playing at number 1 then lost to Lea Ma of The USA who is already ranked at 110 in the ITF World under 18 rankings although only 16 - tough opposition. Hopes were then on Bahamian number 1 boy Donte Armbrister but again the USA proved too strong. This gave the USA a 3-1 lead going in to the two doubles with The Bahamas needing to win them both to force a final mixed doubles decider. Once again the very strong USA girls won to complete the win over The Bahamas. Meanwhile in the boys doubles it proved a very close contest with The Bahamas winning the first set, then losing the second and going down in the third ten point tie break set in what was by then a match that could not change the overall result.
So maybe a little disappointing finish for The Bahamas 16 & under team but overall a good performance to finish second ahead of both Mexico teams.
I think it was a great experience for our Bahamian Juniors both on and off the court where the IC motto of "Hands across the net, friendship across the ocean" was well represented by our team. For the smallest nation taking part in this event The Bahamas has put up a performance much greater than its size would suggest and they are to be commended for that.
The team have all been a pleasure to be with and have represented The Bahamas and our IC ( International Tennis Club) well.
I thank all our IC sponsors who made this event possible for them.
Kit Spencer
Team Captain
In the early matches Jacobi Bain playing at boys number two won his opening match and Elena Mackey lost to level at 1 match each. Sydney Clarke playing at number 1 then lost to Lea Ma of The USA who is already ranked at 110 in the ITF World under 18 rankings although only 16 - tough opposition. Hopes were then on Bahamian number 1 boy Donte Armbrister but again the USA proved too strong. This gave the USA a 3-1 lead going in to the two doubles with The Bahamas needing to win them both to force a final mixed doubles decider. Once again the very strong USA girls won to complete the win over The Bahamas. Meanwhile in the boys doubles it proved a very close contest with The Bahamas winning the first set, then losing the second and going down in the third ten point tie break set in what was by then a match that could not change the overall result.
So maybe a little disappointing finish for The Bahamas 16 & under team but overall a good performance to finish second ahead of both Mexico teams.
I think it was a great experience for our Bahamian Juniors both on and off the court where the IC motto of "Hands across the net, friendship across the ocean" was well represented by our team. For the smallest nation taking part in this event The Bahamas has put up a performance much greater than its size would suggest and they are to be commended for that.
The team have all been a pleasure to be with and have represented The Bahamas and our IC ( International Tennis Club) well.
I thank all our IC sponsors who made this event possible for them.
Kit Spencer
Team Captain