By Sean Devers
THE third of four categories in the Sheltez Independence Junior Tournament will be held from tomorrow at the Le Ressouvenir Tennis club on the East Coast of Demerara as the development of tennis at Nursery level is on the move.

The third category will be the U-18s. Over twenty-five players will be participating, with over twenty matches to be played again; the venues will be the two tennis clubs on the East Coast and East Bank. In the second category (U14s), which featured boys and girls, was played over a three-day period. Two venues are being used for all events: GBTI (Diamond) and Le Ressouvenir.
Thirteen players competed in a round robin system with six girls and seven boys being placed in two groups.

They played two short sets (4 games) each and a tie-break game (10 points) for each match.

The results of the round robin are as follow:
Kimora def Khloe 4/1 4/1, Niomi def Sihle 5/3 5/3, Elwyn 4/4 (7/3) 4/1Jonathan, Christin def Khole 4/0 4/0, Sihle def Anastaia 4/1 4/0, Jose def Ethan 4/1 4/0, Nathan def Kedel 4/0;4/0, Nathan def Sam w/o, Kedel w/o from Sam, Jose def Jonathan 4/1 4/2, Elwdef Ethan w/0 4/1, Niomi def Anastaia 5/3 4/0 and Christin def Kimora 5/3 4/1
The top two players from each group advanced to the knock-out round.

Christin Richmond, Niomi Erskine, Kimora Erskine and Sihlelewe Marakalla were the girls who qualified while Nathan DeNobrega, Elwyn Levius, Jose Rodrigues, and Aakesh Panday qualified among the Boys.

In the Boys semi-finals, Nathan DeNobrega defeated Elwyn Levius 4/1 4/4(7/3) while Akesh Panday beat Jose Rodrigues
5/3 4/2.

In the Girls Final, Christin Richmond got past Niomi Erskine 0/4 4/4(8/6) 10/4, while in the Boys Final, Nathan DeNobrega defeated Akesh Panday 4/1 5/3.

The matches were all exciting to see with some of the players still in competitive mode from overseas tournaments they played in and were able to showcase a great level of performance. Other participants in this category showed potential and fought hard.

The final category will be the U-12 and will be contested on May 20th and 21st.