Impressive Burke storms into final

Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Top seed Brandon Burke will face number two ranked Macoy Malcolm as both players secured convincing wins in the Boys Under-18 semi-finals of the Pan Caribbean Jamaica Junior Championships, at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre yesterday.

Burke continued to stamp his class on the tournament as he got by third seed Matthew Rodriguez 6-1, 6-2, while Malcolm also looked in good form as he stopped Davian Burrell 7-5, 6-0. The boys' final will be contested tomorrow.

In girls' play, it a was relatively easy day at the office for sisters Simone and Lauren Vranov-Brown, as they cruised their way into the Under-18 and 16 semi-finals with easy wins.

In the girls' 18 quarter-final, Simone stuck out a difficult first set to eventually come away a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Shaneka Knight, while Lauren was simply devastating as she put away Ericka Robertson 6-1, 6-0 in the girls 16 class.

Despite getting off to a fast start against Knight, with an easy hold and a quick break of serve, Vranov-Brown soon found herself struggling early in the first set. A string of unforced errors saw Knight immediately getting on the scoreboard. To put even more doubt into the mind of Vranov-Brown, Knight then broke to level the game at 2-2.

Vranov-Brown broke right back to take the lead, but dropped another service game to level the score at 3-3. However, she picked up her game, broke Knight at 15-40, held easily for a 5-3 lead and then broke at love to secure the first set.

Sudden death

"I hadn't realised that we were playing sudden death on the service games so I was a little shook up by that," Vranov-Brown told The Gleaner.

"I won this division last year, so it's a bit of pressure but I'll just have to just take it one match at a time," the 16-year-old said.

In another girls' 18 quarter-final, Monique Hanson defeated Anna-Lisa Cummings 6-2, 6-0.

In boys' 16 quarter-final action, Rowland Phillips got by Daniel Gyles 6-2, 6-2, Sheldon McIntosh beat Ryan Simms 6-2, 6-2, Jordan Harris stopped Daniel Harris 6-1, 6-0 and Joseph Ross blanked Jordan Henry 6-0, 6-0.