Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:

National youth tennis player, Winfried Weinbeer, bade farewell to Tryall Cub on Saturday at a presentation session held at the Hanover-based hotel, on whose courts he honed his skills over the past five years.

The Tryall Club presented US$1000 and tennis equipment to Weinbeer, two weeks before he heads off to the United States to take up a scholarship at the Alcorn State University in Mississippi, to study marketing.

Weinbeer, who hails from Haughton Court in Lucea, Hanover, recently graduated from the Lucea-based Rusea's High School.

Tournaments

Now ranked in Jamaica's top five under-18 players, Weinbeer is a product of the Tennis Jamaica schools programme. He first begun playing tennis at age 12 in Lucea on a volleyball court and was invited a year later, by national director of tennis, Douglas Burke, to compete in tournaments.

"I played a couple of them (matches) and he told me I should get a real coach. And so, after a while he put me on to director of tennis at Tryall, Richard Ferdinand," Weinbeer said. "Richard invited me up here and tested me out to see if I could actually play and he took me in like family, actually."

The Tryall Club offered Weinbeer their tennis court facilities to conduct his training, due to a lack of the facilities in Lucea. At Tryall, he had the opportunity to play with, and be guided by the likes of former Grand Slam champion, Roy Emerson, Fred Stolle who is ranked seventh on the all-time list of Grand Slam champions and Owen Davidson, who has a total of 15 Grand Slam championship titles.

Championship

Weinbeer won the recently held Guardian Life tournament and has also captured the PetCom Junior Championship in the past. Last year he reached the quarter-finals in singles and the semi-finals in doubles in a Caribbean tournament in Guadeloupe.

Tryall's Ferdinand, told The Gleaner that he was happy his company was able to facilitate Weinbeer's training sessions on the hotel's courts.

"The main thing was providing a facility for him to come and play to nurture his skills. He played with all the ball boys, the pros. In another five years I see him playing division one college tennis," he said.