TOURNAMENT REFEREE at the recently concluded Catch Junior National Championships, Edwin Chu especially commended the Tobagonian players for their progress.

“I think the Tobago players have done exceptionally well at the Catch tournament and they have continued their winning trend for over the past two years.

With reference to last year, I have seen a 100 percent improvement in players like Ty and Joshua Abraham.

Elan Murray- Mendes, who is also from Tobago, continues to show great potential on the competitive circuit as well,” he explained

Coach Anthony Williams has implemented several programmes in Tobago which have been paying dividends. The Boys Under-16 Singles title was won by Abraham (T), who defeated compatriot Murray-Mendes in the championship match. However, Chu admitted that he was not too impressed with the level of competition by some of the Under-16 and Under-18 players. Comparing the skill levels to that of last year’s tournament, the referee partly laid blame on the smaller number of entrants.

“I think the levels displayed this year were not up to par with those of last year. A lot of players did not take part for whatever reasons, but this was seen throughout the older divisions,” he added.

Chu also voiced concerns on the small number of Novice entrants.

“This year, the Novices category was limited to players who have never played in an official tournament ever. So these were all first-timers.

“In previous years, novices were given the ‘ok’ to play even if they contested in one or two tournaments before.

This year we only had about 20 novices and I think it’s the new rule that hampered this part of the competition a bit,” Chu continued.

He was also saddened by the decreasing number of female entrants. Even though Kezia Koroma won the Under-16 Singles and Under-18 Singles, Chu felt journey to the top was quite easy.

“Koroma powered to victory yes, but she didn’t have much of a tough field of players to overcome.

This should not be. I think especially in Trinidad, we have to do a bit more to motivate and generate new female faces to the sport of tennis.

We have to implement programmes like the Tobagonians if we are to show further competitive progress,” said Chu.

Source: www.newsday.co.tt