By Carlena Knight
President of the Antigua and Barbuda Tennis Association (ABTA) Cordell Williams Sr, has highlighted the low number of male tennis players compared to females in the country.
Williams was a guest on the Good Morning JoJo Sports show when he commented on the matter.
“I keep saying one thing and I am going to continue [saying] that we need more boys playing tennis. At the moment my girls’ programme is very solid. I have a number of girls and they are doing very good. The boys [programme] is limited, it’s basically just a handful of them, so if one can’t make it then it hampers you. So I will continue to preach that within the coaching thing that we have within the ministry I would like to see them coaching than rather to go into schools that they cannot get anyone from.”
He continued on to speak on the three-member team Justyn Raeburn, Jaydon Marcano and De Andre Weeks who recently played in Santo Domingo competing at the World Tennis Junior Pre-qualifiers.
“Well, the boys I sent to get the experience. I had asked them to just go and perform because we hadn’t competed in the tournament for over 20 years. We [were] in a tough draw with the players from the region, so the boys [were], in terms of, winning, not doing very good but I am sure the experience that they got from this competition will let them work just a little bit harder. When they come back we will see improvement throughout the year as they move on to other tournaments,” Williams said.
Presently, a three-member female team comprised of Brasha Dyer, Janae George-Alexander and Zoey James is competing at the girls edition of the WJTC Pre-Qualifiers. They lost to the Bahamas 2-1 but beat Barbados 3-0.
They will face Costa Rica in their final group match.