UP and coming junior player Afruica Gentle stole the show at Antigua’s Junior Tennis Invitational to claim the Girls 12 and under title. Afruica is the younger sister of former junior national champion Shawna Gentle.

She easily dispatched Jamaica’s Michaela Stephens 6-2, 6-2 in the final this past Sunday.
The younger Gentle along with three other Guyanese junior players had to fight their way through the qualifying round of the tournament in order to make it into the main draw.
Former National Under-12 winner, Shivani Persaud, Keenan Persaud and Jordan Beaton were the other players on the team to Antigua. Keenan Persaud and Jordan Beaton were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Main Draw Under-12 Boys categories while Shivani Persaud made the semi-finals of the Girls tournament.
The Antigua 12 and Under Junior tournament attracts players from several islands namely Trinidad, Jamaica, Grenada among others.
The tournament, a regular feature on the Antigua calendar, featured a very high level of competition. The National coach Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan highlighted that the win by Afruica Gentle has earned her an invitation to the Jamaican Junior Invitational in July.
Ramdyhan, who accompanied the team, stated that the players all played exceptional tennis for their age group but it was Gentle who stood out in the Guyanese contingent.
She said, “The players all found it a bit difficult to adapt to conditions at the start of the competition, due largely in part to their late arrival.”
Ramdyhan stated that the players took a bit of time to come to grips with the playing conditions but with the 15 minutes of practice they had, they recovered.
The coach said this year they would like to work on the fitness of all players, since that was one of the downfalls for the junior players last year.
The Association has also received a formal Invitation to the St Lucian Invitational. Along with that, the association would be sending a strong contingent to the St Vincent Invitational.
This would be great exposure of high level tennis for Gentle and the other players who would be selected for these oversees tournament.
V-P of the Association, Grace McCalman, congratulated Gentle on her victory and applauded the team on their performance.