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Photo of Simba French Simba French Send an 24, 2023 296 2 minute read
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Perry Newton.
It has been a busy year for the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) internationally but that has been with the juniors. Their senior teams will be in action in June and July in the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup tournaments respectively and the president of BLTA, Perry Newton, is looking forward to seeing those teams in action.
The Davis Cup will get underway on June 19 at the Club Internacional de Tenis in Asuncion, Paraguay. The Billie Jean King Cup is set for July 26-29 at the Centro Nacional De Tenis Parque Del Este in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Newton saw Marvin Rolle and Donte Armbrister book the remaining two spots on the Davis Cup team and teenager Sapphire Ferguson and Simone Pratt securing their spots on the Billie Jean King Cup team this past weekend at the national team trials.
“We had Rolle and Armbrister face off as well as Ferguson and Pratt. We are excited about the teams as usual. Whenever we have an opportunity to compete it is exciting because that is what we train and prepare for – the opportunity to compete and to compete at a high level,” Newton said.
The other members on the Davis Cup team are Denali Nottage and professional tennis player Kevin Major Jr. Elana Mackey and Sydney Clarke are the other two members of the Billie Jean King Cup team. Rolle will be making his 19th appearance at Davis Cup while Major is making a seventh appearance. Armbrister will make his second appearance and Nottage, who is the national champion, will be making his debut.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) made a change to zone play where zone two is now a world group and zone three has a lot of high quality teams. The Bahamas is competing in zone three.
“I am excited about the men’s team,” Newton said. “It is just an amazing process and it is amazing to see the level of competition throughout the region based on some changes the ITF has done. It is a joy to be in that zone and be able to compete at that level. That level of exposure is what we seek to get because we have to prove that we can compete at a high level.”
Pratt is making her seventh appearance on the Billie Jean King Cup team while Clarke is making her fifth appearance. Mackey, the nation champion, will be making her fourth appearance while Ferguson is making her debut. Newton said he is looking forward to their play, especially for 15-year-old Ferguson.
“I am excited for Ferguson as it is her first time on the team and just to be able to go and experience this level of play, is an accomplishment. It is a career defining moment and hopefully, she will be able to take away a lot of lessons and gain a lot of experience to help her in her personal development,” Newton said.
The other teams participating in the Davis Cup tournament are Bermuda, Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Venezuela. There will be two round robin groups with one having four teams and the other one having five teams. Three nations will be promoted and two will be relegated.
The other teams that will be competing at the Billie Jean King Cup tournament are Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Two teams will be promoted and two will be relegated.