Guyana’s De Nobrega teams up with St Lucian to take title

By Sean Devers
Their was plenty of celebration in the Guyana camp as 13 year-old Guyanese Nathan DeNobrega and St Lucian Alhil Cyril won the COTECC Barbados Powerade U-14 Doubles Championship.
The pair defeated the number 2 seed, Travis Licorish (BAR) and Thomas O’Neill (CAN) 7/5,7/5 at Wildly in Barbados on Thursday evening.

Cyril and De Nobrega had beaten the Barbadian pair of Dimitri Kirton and Ethan Warner in the semi-finals, 3/6,6/4,12/10, in a three-set thriller.
De Nobrega/Cyril trailed 9/6 in the decider before reeling off four consecutive points to move ahead 10/9. Kirton hit a crisp volley winner to level 10/10. The number four seeded pair held their nerves to take the next two points and the match in a dramatic super tie.

Head coach Andre Erskine said he was extremely proud of DeNobrega’s performances for the year so far.

“In January 2023 in the Inter-club Trinidad’s COTECC U-14 Championships, Nathan was the finalist in Singles Main Draw and Semi-finalist is the Doubles while here (Barbados) in the Barbados’ COTECC U-14, Nathan reached the Quarter finals in Singles Main draw before winning in the Doubles,” Coach Erskine informed.

“Apart from Nathan being a discipline athlete, he is also consistent with his training. At age 13, he has a very strong fight and willing to always do well, both in his sport and academically,” continued Coach Erskine.

According to Erskine, all of their player’s weaknesses were exposed during the last four weeks and as a result the coaches will be returning home and immediately work on them.
“We would not settle for less and that’s the mind-set I try to instil in all of my players,” concluded the coach.

The Guyanese are expected to return home today and will be participating in the Sheltez tournament which is scheduled to commence this afternoon.