Kristen Lopez making a forehand return during the final of the Barbados Tennis Assocaition's Invitational tournament last weekend at the National Tennis Centre. (Picture by Charles Pitt-Grant.)

NATIONAL TENNIS CO-ORDINATOR KEVIN YARDE is pleased with what he saw at the Barbados Tennis Association Invitational which ended on Saturday night at the National Tennis Centre.

The tournament will be used as part of the criteria to select national teams for the junior and senior Davis Cup and Fed Cup events which will be held over the next two to three months.

In the men's final Anthony Marshall beat Mark Beckles 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, while Maya Morgan took the women's title, beating Kristen Lopez 7-5, 7-5.

"There was some pretty good tennis, especially from the two finalists. It was a good final," Yarde said.

"There is definitely talent out there from players for us to do well like Bradley Bryan, Christopher King and Darian King. The older players like Michael Date and Damian Applewaithe are still maintaining a high standard of tennis."

One feature of this tournament was the number of overseas based players who returned. Marshall lives in Venezuela, Beckles in England, Bryan and Akil Burgess are among a few who are in the United States. Morgan is on a tennis scholarship at Hampton University, Virginia, United States.

"They showed a high level of tennis. Anthony obviously has been playing some Futures tournaments and you could see that in the shot-making and his ability to create openings. The same can be said about Mark.

"There is definitely an improvement in Bradley's game. If he continues to play, he will be one of the players we will have to look to for the future. He is under-18 and will have to work on getting some points," he said of the youngster.

"Kristen is showing some maturity in her game. Maya showed good mental application but you can see she was slightly out of touch because she hasn't been playing this semester. Tennis is a spring sport and I expect to see some improvement from her.

"It was an intriguing final because Kristen showed some aggressive hitting and Maya countered that with consistent tennis and mixed it up."

Some of the locally based juniors also took part in the tournament. The association is expected to name a team of players for the junior Davis and Fed Cups shortly so they can begin training.
(SAC)