National Racquet Centre to host ITF/COTECC U12 tourney

THE National Racquet Centre in Tacarigua has been selected as the host venue for this year’s International Tennis Federation/Central American and Caribbean Tennis Confederation (ITF/COTECC) Under-12 Development Championships.

On Monday, the Tennis Association of Trinidad and Tobago (TennisTT) confirmed their successful bid for the tournament, which serves off from July 16 to 23.

As the host nation, TT are allowed to submit two boys’ and girls’ teams, with each team (team one and two) consisting of three players.

Trials for the selection of these national teams take place from Friday to Sunday at the National Racquet Centre.

TennisTT has since invited the top 12-ranked local athletes (both boys and girls) to participate in the trials.

The event is a team competition for COTECC sub region 4 countries. In addition to TT, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Curacao, Grenada, Guyana, Suriname, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Anguilla, St Vincent and the Grenadines and the US Virgin Islands will also compete.

At the end of the tournament, the top two teams which emerge will advance to the ITF/COTECC U12 finals in August.

TT hosted the U12 Development Championships in 2018 and 2019. In the former, TT’s boys’ teams placed first and second and girls second and fourth. And in the latter, TT’s boys repeated their performance while the girls placed first and fifth.

This tourney marks the re-commencement of a series of regional and international tournaments, titled “the Summer of Tennis” due to take place at the National Racquet Centre over the next two months.

This will also be the first major tournament being held there since the pandemic hit in March 2020. The Racquet Centre was also utilised by the TT government as a step-down facility for recovering covid19 patients. TennisTT anticipates a successful U12 Development Championships Trial and selection process and invites tennis enthusiasts and the general spectating public to support the event.