Seventeen-year-old Bradley Bryan, ripping a double-fisted backhand yesterday, is one of six Barbadians in the main draw of the Boys' 18 Division of the 2006 FirstCaribbean International Tennis Tournament which serves off today.

by BERNARD BABB

SIX BARBADIANS will have their best games tested when the 2006 FirstCaribbean International Junior Tennis Tournament serves off this morning at the National Tennis Centre, Wildey, St Michael.

Florida-based Bradley Bryan and local age-group champion Devard Wharton secured their spots in the main draw of the Under-18 Boys' Division on the strength of world-ranking points while the others were awarded wild cards.

Top juniors Chris King, Christopher Date, Darian King and Seanon Williams secured slots in the competitive 32-player draw and are hoping to collect world-ranking points on home turf.

"I'm playing much better than last year and I'm looking to get to at least the semi-finals in the singles," 17-year-old Bryan told the DAILY NATION yesterday.

The son of former Barbados champion Tyrone Mapp, Bryan is based at Guizar Tennis Academy in Florida and reached the semi-finals of the doubles competition last year.

He has a world-ranking of 1580 in the Under-18's while Wharton is ranked 1010.

Wild card hopeful 14-year-old Darian King is making a brave plunge into the Under-18 Division after winning the 14's competition last year.

Among the girls, Kristen Lopez, Alyssa Fuentes, Kathleen MacDonald and Gabrielle Lopez received wild cards into the Girls' Under-18 main draw while Maya Morgan took her slot, based on a world ranking of 1279.

In the last round of yesterday's qualifiers, Barbadian Andre Parris failed to make it to the main draw as he was stopped by American Kirill Kasyanov.

Kasayanov and compatriot Max Eppley forced their way into the main draw after playing unbeaten in the qualifiers.

Russian Valeriya Solovieva also cruised into the 32-player girls' draw with easy wins over the opposition and is favoured to reach the last four of the tournament.

Twenty boys and 16 girls contested the qualifiers for four remaining slots in each division of the tournament which is sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation.

Up to press-time last night, officials were working on the draw and seedings for the competition.

The tournament, which has attracted close to 150 players from 30 countries, starts at 8:30 a.m. with an official ceremony before Under-18 matches get going at Wildey and Under-14 at Rockley courts.