Cook reaches two finals
BREANA STAMPFLI began her campaign in magnificent fashion when the Coca-Cola ITF (International Tennis Federation) Junior Tournament continued on Wednesday in St Lucia.
On a day when her four remaining compatriots were eliminated from the under-18 draw, the top Trinidad and Tobago player crushed Barbadian Cherise Slocombe 6-0, 6-0 following a first-round bye to reach the quarter-finals.
In stark contrast, Dominique Coutain and Kezia Koroma, the runner-up in last week’s National Championships, were each only able to win one game against third-seeded Bahamian Danielle Thompson and No. 4 seed Mia Smith of Great Britain, respectively.
Shania Millington, who like fellow Tobagonian Koroma had not lost a single game in the first round, was beaten 6-2, 6-1 by No. 5 seed Anjana Suresh of Canada.
In the boys’ equivalent draw, Ty Abraham, a quarter-finalist in “Nationals”, went under 6-4, 6-3 against fourth-seeded Briton Stefan Cooper.
Abraham’s twin brother Joshua, who lost in the final of “Nationals”, had gone out in the first round, along with Kryel Trim, Juliet Campbell, Danielle Devenish and Makalah Goodridge.
Stampfli, who won her first ITF title three weeks ago in Jamaica lost in a doubles final the following weekend in Dominican Republic, is seeded second in singles and third in doubles.
Elysse Graci is not playing this week, so the three-time defending Tranquillity Open champion—who has climbed from #491 to #433 in the world in juniors in the last couple weeks—is combining with another American, Madison Appel.
They received a bye into the quarters, but Campbell and Devenish got there by edging St Lucians Julia D’Auvergne and Jayda Hunte 0-6, 6-4, 10/8. The Tobagonian Millington and D’Jeri Raymond of Antigua lost just one game against Antiguan Noah Peters and Surabhi Gupta of St Lucia, but Goodridge and Campbell were not able to win any from Americans Nandu Mandalap and Cristina Rovira.
Koroma and Slocombe were nosed out 3-6, 6-3, 11/9 by Canadian Michelle Kaplan and Megan Rogers of Great Britain.
The Abraham twins, who reached two ITF doubles finals recently, came up against the No. 4 seeds and were beaten 6-3, 7-6 (7/5). Trim and Simon Lewis of Barbados lost 6-3, 6-2 to top seeds William De Quant of Holland and American Jean Thirouin, but Nabeel Mohammed managed to reach the quarters.
The national under-16 and 18 champ, who reached the under-16 quarters of JITIC last week and went out in singles qualifying in this tournament, and Jakub Wojcik of the United States beat American Dimitri Bird and Eduardo Camacho of Costa Rica 6-4, 6-1.
In under-14 action, Candace Cook reached the finals of both singles and doubles.
The Tobagonian halted Vincentian Gabrielle Benn 7-6 (7/1), 6-1, but compatriot Anya King was beaten 6-2, 6-0 in the other semi-final by Sierra Donaldson of Bahamas.
Cook and King then nosed out Vincentians Alexi Humphrey and Anastasia White 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 11/9 in the doubles semis.
In the boys’ quarters, Danyel Angus went under 6-0, 6-2 against Jean-Phillipe Murray and another St Lucian Adrian Bosquet, accounted for Kobe James 6-1, 6-3.
James and Tobagonian Joshua Arnold then reached the doubles semis in convincing fashion as they surrendered just one game against Ethan Doctrove and Noveka Josiah of Dominica.