RISING Guyanese junior tennis player, Heimraj Resaul, will depart Guyana today to participate at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tobago Under-18 tournament, which is scheduled to run from August 18 to 25.

Resaul recently performed at the Jamaica Blue Mountain Invitational, where he ended as first runner-up in the Boys’ Under-16 category and made it as far as the semifinals of the Boys’ Under-18 category.

He also participated in the ITF Jamaica Under-18, where he came up against intense competition from players across the Caribbean and North America.

He will be facing similar competition at the ITF Tobago tournament, so each win will be its own accomplishment.

Resaul told Chronicle Sport recently that he has done a lot of high intensity training ahead of the tournament, since he anticipates a tough challenge from his competitors.

“Training has been coming along really nice, we’ve been doing a lot of high intensity training due to the level that I’m going to play, it’s been really difficult trying to keep up but I think I’ve been doing fine,” Resaul related.

He added, “I want to do really well and I would really like to at least get past the first round, because the level of tennis is really high so to be able to even get through the first round would really be an accomplishment for me, and especially if I’m able to do better than the first round,” Resaul shared, when Chronicle Sport caught up with him at training earlier this week.

Resaul has been using his experience from his performance in Jamaica, to train for the tournament in Tobago, with the hopes to improve.

“Getting into the second competition in Jamaica there were a lot of players from around the Caribbean and the US and Canada, so with that much players it was a really high level. It was difficult to maintain that high level, but playing better players it kind of forces you to bring out the best in yourself, so I was actually able to play at a higher level than I’m used to. Even though it was difficult to maintain that level I managed to do it for some time,” Resaul noted.

With just a few weeks between competitions, Resaul could not work on everything he had hoped to. However, he still managed to work on a few improvements.

“Between Jamaica and Trinidad is only about three-and-a-half weeks, so I couldn’t really change a lot of things about my technique,” Resaul explained.

Resaul’s coach, Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan also has good hopes for the 16-year-old.

“I know he has the ability, he’s ready, he’s hungry, so come next Monday he will give 100% of himself, so any good results won’t be a surprise to me, I expect him to do very well. The exposure continues to be good for him,” Daly-Ramdyhan stated.

Notwithstanding the limitations Daly-Ramdyhan says with Resaul’s enthusiasm and dedication to the sport, he’s on the right path.

“He’s hungry he’s very hungry for tennis and he has very big plans, so I know that his eagerness is there because he knows all the benefits that comes from playing at these tournaments and performing very well.

“So every tournament, every match, every practice he has that mindset that it must be 100% in terms of approach,” she said.