Burke impressed by quality of high-school tennis

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

National tennis director, Douglas Burke, said he was very impressed with the high quality of tennis displayed during the three-day LIME/ISSA Schools Championship finals, which ended at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre last Saturday.

"I thought the competition went really well because the level of play was very high and there has been an improvement in the standard of the competition since last year," said Burke, a former national champion.

"The schools were very competitive and the finals was very interesting and exciting. All the schools came out fully prepared and I must give a lot of credit to the coaches because they have done a fine job with these players," Burke said.

He added that the support for tennis within schools across the island had been improving and they (Jamaica Tennis Association/JTA) would be looking to build on this momentum.

"I think the sport is growing because of the help to develop tennis programmes within their schools," Burke noted.

Results

Meanwhile, Campion College and Immaculate Conception were crowned boys' and girls' champions, respectively.

In the boys' section, Campion thrashed Wolmer's Boys 7-0, while Immaculate defeated Wolmer's Girls 5-2.

In the boys matches, Ramone Doyley defeated Audi Smith 6-0, 6-0; Andrew Bicknell defeated Corey Richmond 6-0, 3-1 (retired injured); Ceran Messam defeated Alex Anderson 6-4, 6-0; and Kristov Gayle defeated Kareem Flowers 6-4, 6-2, to record Campion's four singles wins. Campion also won all three doubles matches.

On the girls' side, Michaelann Denton defeated Phadira Kepple 6-2, 6-2; Sonam Khemlani stopped Sara Orrett 7-5, 6-2; and Megan Viera thrashed Annalise Moseley 6-2, 6-1 to record Immaculate's three singles wins.

Kalisse Kelly beat Serena Harjani 6-0, 6-4 to record Wolmer's lone singles win.

Immaculate won two of the three doubles matches with the combinations of Viera and Thelwell, and Denton and Harjani, winning.

Ramone Doyley of Campion and Michaelann Denton of Immaculate were voted the Most Valuable Players in the boys' and girls' categories, respectively.

The schools which won the Most Disciplined awards were Montego Bay High in the girls' category, and Munro College in the boys' section.