By Neto Baptiste
The National Tennis Center (NTC), will become a hub of activity this weekend when the Antigua and Barbuda Tennis Association (ABTA) hosts the third installation of the Antigua vs. St. Kitts tennis competition at their Campsite venue.
General Secretary of the ABTA, Peter Quinn, said the body expects a total of 12 players from neighbouring St Kitts while a total of 40 players are expected from Antigua.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, Quinn outlined the format of the age-group tournament that will cater for players between the ages of 12 to 16.
“We would ensure that the seeded players will not play each other in the preliminary rounds and they would be separated by groups so you’d have group one, group two, group three and group four depending on the number of entrants. The top two from each group would advance to the quarterfinals, semifinals and then to the finals and then we’d have a back draw, which would be the consolation draw for those who would not advance to the main draw,” he said.
Quinn said that registration will open on Friday with play set to commence at 9 on Saturday morning and run until Monday, December 9.
He revealed that the body had hoped to have increased participation based on the number of countries originally invited.
“The plan this year really, was to expand it to include other islands so we had extended invitations to the other islands but they had made other commitments because there are some competing tournaments down the islands, particularly in Trinidad and most of them had already made commitments to these tournaments. We had interest expressed from the Virgin Islands but at the last minute they pulled out. The idea is to expand it next year to broaden the field and to have other countries participating,” the official said.
The event was first started in 2022 with St Kitts taking home the inaugural title while the teams finished the championships on even terms in 2023.
