by BERNARD BABB

TOP BARBADIAN JUNIOR DARIAN KING and five other compatriots are expected to be in action when
the 2008 FirstCaribbean International Tennis Tournament serves off this morning at the National Tennis Centre, Wildey.

King, who reached the last 16 in singles and the doubles semi-finals in Trinidad last week,
will be hoping to improve his international ranking
on home turf.

With an international ranking of 377, King and Devard Wharton (699) are the island's best prospects
in the ITF-sanctioned tournament which features players from more then 20 countries.

Other Barbadian players in the main draw of the Boys Under-18 competition, either by virtue of their international rankings or by wild cards, are Seanon Williams, Renaldo Gibson, Jerome Dixon and
Hasani Stewart.

The Barbadian girls in the main draw are Kristen Lopez (1013 world ranking), Alyssa Fuentes (1413), Ancia Ifill, Kandia Shorey, Zahra Stewart, and Gabriella Lopez.

In qualifiers over the weekend, several Barbadians found the going tough and late yesterday, Yuki Muramatsu of Japan, Amogh Prabhakar of India,
Luis Ramirez of Venezuela and American Andrew Superstein secured the four remaining spots
in the boys' main draw.

The four female qualifiers making it to the 32-player main draw were Alejandro Gabriel of Guatemala, Gina Suarez-Malaguti and Emily Wolf of the United States, and Lyubov Pogribnyak of the Ukraine.

The tournament, which is attracting both male and female players in Under-18 and Under-14 divisions,
is hosted by the Barbados Tennis Association.

Nineteen girls and 26 boys are contesting
the Under-14 divisions.

Players from the English and Spanish-speaking Caribbean as well as England, United States, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Colombia, Canada, Costa Rica,
El Salvador, Poland, Italy, France, Ukraine, Japan
and India are in Barbados for the tournament.