Young Bermudian tennis standout Daniel Phillips got off to a strong start at the J3 Delray Beach International Tennis Federation tournament at the Delray Swim and Tennis Club yesterday.

The eleventh-seeded Phillips made light work of American qualifier Alex Feies 6-3, 6-2 in his first round assignment.

He is scheduled to come up against another American Tommy Czaplinski in his second round match-up after Czaplinski got the better of compatriot Daniel Kong 7-6, 6-2, to swing his way into the next round.

Phillips is also expected to team up with American Elias Shokry to form the sixth-seeded pairing in the doubles category and together, they will face Andrew Delgado and Tanner Povey, both from the United States.

The Bermudian, who is based in Delray Beach, is stepping up a level into the J3 category after achieving success at J4 tournaments in Guatemala, where he had to play through three rounds of qualifying and Puerto Rico as increased his experience and stock in the junior game in a continued push towards the paid ranks.

Phillips also won the clay court doubles title in Panama, after teaming up with Canadian Sasha Rozin.

He had earlier lost to tournament winner Dante Carlos Teramo from Argentina, who defeated the Bermudian 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 at the quarter-finals stage at the J4 Llanos De Curundu competition.

In Puerto Rico, Phillips, who started as the sixth-seed at the J4 hard court tournament, outlasted eight-seeded American Cyrus Mahjoob 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 to secure top honours and continue his impressive performance on the circuit.

The 17 year-old Phillips, who has played eight events to date, is ranked 367th on 146.25 points in the latest world tennis tour junior rankings, having fallen five spots since the previous classification.

The ranking is led by American Bruno Kuzuhara who has tallied 2,497.75 points from his 16 events with Paraguay’s Daniel Vallejo (2,135.25 points) and Czech Republic’s Jakub Mensik (2,096) rounding out the top three spots.