The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE a last minute amendment to the draw, the majority of the top male and female players still opted not to participate in the main draw of the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association’s 2018 Giorgio Baldacci National Open.

Conspicuously missing from Thursday’s action at the National Tennis Centre were female competitors Kerrie Cartwright and Danielle Thompson and male competitors Kevin Major Jr, Baker Newman and Philip Major Jr.

In their absence, Perjae Major, Afrika Smith, Sydney Clarke and Sierra Donaldson all advanced to the women’s semi-finals that will be played today, while Justin Lunn, Shannon Francis, Jacobi Bain and Donte Armbrister advanced on the men’s side.

BLTA president Darnette Weir said it’s unfortunate about the turn of events, but the board did all they could to accommodate the players over the controversy the day before the main draw was scheduled to start on Wednesday.

“We met with the players last night (Wednesday) and the board made a compromise where we redid the draw,” Weir said. “We had two juniors who gave up their seeds to accommodate the players and at the end of the day, we came out here expecting all the players to play.”

As they did on Thursday with the first round of the Main Draw, Weir said they will continue the tournament and when it’s done, they will review the complaints lodged by the players.

But she maintained that the board followed the rules set in place for the past few years in to determine the seeding of the players in the qualifying round and into the main draw.

While the tournament serves as a selection by the BLTA for the teams that will represent the Bahamas at both the Fed Cup for ladies and Davis Cup for men, Weir said the board will review the results and the teams will be chosen in the best interest of the country.

“I can’t say what we will do at this moment. We will discuss it as a board and come to a fair solution,” she stated.

Based on the “no shows” and the results posted, the men’s Davis Cup team that propelled the Bahamas from zone III to zone II last year has been wiped away, including player/coach Marvin Rolle and only one player from the Fed Cup team is still alive.

Rolle, who was named the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture’s Coach of the Year for his success of the Davis Cup, which was named he team of the year, had to withdraw from further competition against Donte Armbrister in their first round Main Draw match.

Rolle, 34, won the first set 7-5, but watched as Armbrister, stormed back to take the second set 6-2. Trailing 1-0 in the third and deciding set, Rolle was forced to retire with a slight injury he sustained in the second set.\

Armbrister, 17, will now go on to play his local rival Jacobi Bain in one half of today’s semifinals. Bain, 15, survived with a 6-3, 6-4 upset win over 24-year-old Jody Turnquest, who was on the Davis Cup team last year.

“My match was pretty good. I felt I did pretty good, so I was very pleased with how I played overall,” said Bain, who is coming off a semifinal appearance at the Eddie Herr Tournament in Florida last week.

While getting his physical therapy, Bain said he was informed early Thursday morning that he had to play his first match at 9 am against Kofi Bowe, so he rushed to the NTC and won 6-4, 6-0.

“I was surprised that the tournament was still on,” he said.

Justin Lunn, a former member of the Davis Cup team, said despite all that was going on the day before, he just wanted to ply. He won his first round match6-0, 6-0 over Archie Burrows. He was scheduled to play Kevin Major in the second round, but won by a walk over.

“I decided to play because I’m the type of person that if I am signed up to play, I would like to finish, no matter what happen,” he said. “I just used the meeting as the first round of the main draw.

“I just used it as a motivator. Plus my dad told me to get out there and show them that I’m still playing. I would love to get back on the Davis Cup team and get my national ranking up there. So I felt good.”

Lunn, however, said he was surprised that the other players didn’t show up.

“I thought everybody was going to play,” he said. “Everybody have their own opinion. But everything yesterday was all mental. I think a lot of people were thrown off and so some of them were just mentally blown. You have to be prepared mentally to play.”

Lunn, 27, will take on 21-year-old Shannon Francis, who won his first round main draw match over Baker Newman by walk over.

On the ladies’ side, 18-year-old Sydney Clarke clinched her berth into the semi’s with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Donesha Gibson. Clarke, the top junior player and student at the Albany Academy, will now go on to play Perjae Major, 15, who secured a walk over victory against Morgan State graduate Danielle Thompson.

“I always wanted to play. I didn’t want to stop. I knew there were some issues with the tournament and how the seedings went,” Clarke said. “I think the players should have addressed the problem from the start.

“So for me, I wanted the tournament to continue, even if they didn’t count the qualifying round. I just wanted to ply like the other juniors. We just came out and whoever wanted to play, played.”

Clarke said despite the circumstances and the change in the draw, she felt the older players should have still played.

The other half of the semi’s will feature Sierra Donaldson against Bethune-Cookman freshman Africa Smith. Donaldson, an 18-year-old freshman at Lee University, won 6-2, 6-1 over Elana Mackey, while Smith, 18, won via a walk over against touring pro Kerrie Cartwright.

Thompson and Cartwright were members of the Fed Cup team last year with Donaldson and Simone Pratt from Grand Bahama, who didn’t enter the tournament this year.

The action will get underway at 9 am.