By Neto Baptiste
Antigua’s number one professional tennis player Jody Maginley believes the country’s players gave their best efforts during this year’s Davis Cup, held in Costa Rica in June.
Speaking of the tournament for the first time, Maginley said the team faced numerous challenges during what he described as a tough tournament.
“Under the circumstances we did really well this year because for the first two days, Carlton and I were playing doubles and, first of all, our rest day was on day five which was tough, so we had to go Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in a row; so we didn’t have much time to rest between, whereas the other teams would have Wednesday off or a Tuesday off so they would play some of their guys and rotate it, and it was just the luck of the draw,” he said.
“For the first two days, Carlton Bedminster and I would play and then Shakir Elvin, on day two, got food poisoning so he was out for two days and then while Shak [Shakir] was out, Kyle Joseph got sick as well with the cold and they were roommates so they were both struggling; and then towards the end of the week, Carlton hurt his knee and his knee was swollen big and we still managed to stay in group three,” he added.
Antigua and Barbuda finished seventh among 11 teams that competed in Zone Three of the Americas group.
Maginley said the country’s chances of advancing to Zone Two in Davis Cup are still as strong as any other in their current zone three.
“If we had beaten Puerto Rico on day four we would have played in the playoff for zone two; and the year before, if we had beaten Honduras we would have been in playoffs for zone two and it’s very close. I think I did very well to keep us in the running for zone two so I wouldn’t say we were closer to going down; we were, but we were also one math away from going up,” he said.
The professional player said the current pool is very small and poised to decrease even further with the unavailability of some key players.
“We don’t have that many tennis players and there is only so much we can do with what we have. We have Shakir who is working fulltime now because he just graduated; and I [don’t] want to say he is out of the game because he still loves it obviously, but he just got a fulltime job which started right after Davis Cup in Florida,” Maginley said.
“Carlton is obviously coaching now; Kyle is still playing so maybe we still have Kyle, and CJ [Cordell Williams Jr] is also coming up now, who was injured this year so we didn’t have CJ this year. But besides that, a few levels down, they’re a few years younger than us so it will take a few years for them to come up,” he added.
The other members of the team were Carlton Bedminster, Shakir Elvin, Kyle Joseph and Cordell Williams Jr, while former national player John Maginley played the role of captain/coach.
Antigua’s number one professional tennis player, Jody Maginley, believes that the country’s players gave their best efforts during this year’s Davis Cup held in Costa Rica in June.
Speaking on the tournament for the first time, Maginley said that the team faced numerous challenges during what he added was a tough tournament.
“Under the circumstances we did really well this year because for the first two days, Carlton and I were playing doubles and first of all, our rest day was on day five which was tough, so we had to go Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in a row so we didn’t have much time to rest between, whereas the other teams would have Wednesday off or a Tuesday off so they would play some of their guys and rotate it and it was just the luck of the draw,” he said.
“For the first two days, Carlton Bedminster and I would play and then Shakir Elvin, on day two, got food poisoning so he was out for two days and then while Shak [Shakir] was out, Kyle Joseph got sick as well with the cold and they were roommates so they were both struggling and then towards the end of the week, Carlton hurt his knee and his knee was swollen big and we still managed to stay in group three,” he added.
Antigua and Barbuda finished seventh from amongst 11 teams that competed in Zone Three of the Americas group.
Maginley said the country’s chances of advancing to Zone Two in Davis Cup are still as strong as any other in their current zone three.
“If we had beaten Puerto Rico on day four we would have played in the playoff for zone two and the year before, if we had beaten Honduras we would have been in playoffs for zone two and it’s very close. I think I did very well to keep us in the running for zone two so I wouldn’t say we were closer to going down, we were, but we were also one math away from going up,” he said.
The professional player said the current pool is very small and poised to decrease even further with the unavailability of some key players.
“We don’t have that many tennis players and there is only so much we can do with what we have. We have Shakir who is working fulltime now because he just graduated; and I [don’t] want to say he is out of the game because he still loves it obviously but he just got a fulltime job which started right after Davis Cup in Florida,” Maginley said.
“Carlton is obviously coaching now, Kyle is still playing so maybe we still have Kyle, and CJ [Cordell Williams Jr] is also coming up now who was injured this year so we didn’t have CJ this year, but besides that, a few levels down, they’re a few years younger than us so it will take a few years for them to come up,” he added.
The other members of the team were Carlton Bedminster, Shakir Elvin, Kyle Joseph and Cordell Williams Jr. while former national player, John Maginley, played the role of captain/coach.