THE Guyana Tennis Association will continue to build on it recent successes, this is according to president of the Association, Ramesh Seebarran. He was at the time presenting his annual report for the calendar year 2012 at the AGM.

Seebarran was unanimously reelected president of the Guyana Tennis Association at its recent Annual General Meeting.  He was joined by First vice-president Grace McCalman as the only two officers returning for office-bearing positions within the association.
Seebarran in reporting on 2012 said that over the last two years, most notably last year, the tennis association has made great strides in taking the sport into the schools and across the country as a whole. One of the main aims for 2013 though will be to have more persons trained in the sport of lawn tennis.
He said, “What we are going to do this years is try to build on what the association has done over the past 2-3 years, that is try to get a lot more players involved within the clubs, within the country and to have more players develop their skills.”
He stressed the importance of developing the game among the juniors within the country. This was evident by the number of junior clinics and competition held during the year 2012.
A total of 28 junior tournaments were held during the previous 12 months. During those months, too, the association recorded 450 students’ participation in these tournaments and these students were eventually placed within clubs.
A sore point for the association heading into the 2013 calendar of activities is the availability of playing facilities for evening competitions. The acting home of tennis in Guyana ‘Pegasus’ is currently under a multi-million dollar upgrade. The other two facilities Non Pareil and the National Park courts are in dire need of resurfacing.
“While more private courts are being built, the ones that matter most are still to be brought up to standard. The National Park courts were resurfaced through the support of GT&T but the work done on the first courts makes it impossible to play. The Non Pareil courts also need to be resurfaced,” the president continued.
“The best two courts at our disposal are those at Diamond; they are very much underutilised and this is a real disappointment..
Due to the technical problem with the courts, we have been unable to correct the problems within the Park thus forcing us to not draw down the remainder to finish the courts. The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company had pledged $1M to aid in the resurfacing and painting of the National Park courts.
The Director of Sport had also pledged his support, this time to have the courts at Non Pareil worked on, but a suitable contractor has yet to be identified to begin the work.
Over the previous year, the top junior players have performed creditably in overseas-based competitions, most notably Nicola Ramdyhan.
She made the quarterfinals in the singles and the final in the doubles competition at the IBM Championship in Trinidad. Guyana was also represented by its top junior players in championship tournaments in Suriname, St Vincent, Curacao and the most prestigious Junior team competition, The Davis and Fed cups.
Today, the Surrey Invitational classical gets under way at the Diamond tennis club.
The newly elected executive members of the Guyana Tennis Association are Ramesh Seebarran (president), Grace McCalman (First vice-president), Andrew Sawh (Second vice-president), Paul Braam (secretary), Ronald Murray (treasure), executive members – Ricky Jamuna, Keimo Benjamin and Oswin Coggins, Life member – Fritz McLean.