The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

After multiple days of competition between 100 tennis players in 175 combined singles and doubles matches, the remaining champions hoisted their hardware yesterday at the National Tennis Centre (NTC).

The Automotive Industrial Distributors Ltd (AID)-sponsored junior national tennis championships saw Jerald Carroll become a triple crown winner and both Sarai Clarke and Takaii Adderley take home the double crown honours.

Among the other winners crowned for the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) doubles matches were Alec Hooper/Cohen Knowles, Sarai Clarke/Briana Houlgrave, and Jerald Carroll/Jackson Mactaggart.

Triple Crown

Carroll came into the final day of the junior national tennis championships looking to repeat last year’s feat of becoming triple crown champion once again. Last year, he won the championships for the under 14 and 16 boys singles and under 16 doubles competition.

This time around he took home the championships in the boys singles under 16 and 18 categories.

Additionally, the dynamic duo of Mactaggart and Carroll closed out their competitors in the under-18 boys doubles.

In match one of three, Carroll took down Khai Rees for the under-16 title.

In match number two, he defeated Dentry Mortimer Jr in three sets.

In the opening set, Mortimer capitalised 6-4. However, in set two, Carroll rebounded nicely winning 6-1. He finally closed out Mortimer 6-0 to win his second match of the day.

In his final match, Mactaggart and Carroll claimed a comfortable victory over Patrick Mackey Jr and Miguel Smith in two sets 4-0, 4-0.

The triple crown winner talked about how it felt to win. “It’s great, it is the first time I am winning it and the finals were tough but I got a big breakthrough in the semis beating a player I have beaten for the first time,” he said.

He added that after learning the game style of his opponent, he used his energy and stamina to defeat him.

Double Crown

After finishing as the runner up in the under 14 and 16 categories last year, Clarke changed her fate at this year’s junior national tennis championships.

The double crown winner earned her first victory in the under 14 girls singles match against last year’s champion Tatyana Madu.

Clarke opened up her first set with a convincing 6-1 win.

Meanwhile, in set two Madu forced a third set after also winning 6-1.

In the final set, Clarke brought it home after wrapping up 6-3.

The newest under 14 girls champion shared her in-match strategy throughout the three sets.

“I started off strong. I sticked with my strategy my gameplan was just consistency and patience in the first set but by the second set my opponent caught on and started playing smarter.

“But I kind of lost it and got distracted, but by the third set I realised just do the same thing you did in the first,” she said.

The 14-year-old added that overall she is very happy to win the championship after training hard.

Her second victory to become double crown winner came against doubles duo Caitlyn Pratt and Danielle Saunders. Clarke and Houlgrave closed out the under 14 girls 4-0, 4-1.

The doubles victory made it two straight for Clarke at the national tennis championships (2022 and 2023).

Takaii Adderley, a first timer at the competition from Gainesville, Florida, was picked as the Gainesville Sun Girls tennis player of the year in June of last year.

However, this year at the junior national tennis championships, Adderley took the competition by surprise, winning the under 16 and 18 singles titles.

In a highly competitive first match, Adderley defeated Breann Ferguson in two sets.

In set one, she finished 6-1 and in set two she narrowly edged out her opponent 7-6.

Adderley said overall the match was good and she thanked God for the victory because the second set was tough.

But she was able to pull through despite having a tough opponent.

In set two, she managed to stay in control and added that she just wanted to take it one point at a time as she is usually confident going into tiebreakers.

In doubles action, Hooper and Knowles were crowned champions for the under 14 boys doubles after winning over Kingston Rees and Synaj Watkins 4-1, 4-0.

Next up for the BLTA will be the International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament from June 24 to July 1 at the NTC.