Coach Gavin Manders hailed his Bermuda side’s strong showing at the International Tennis Federation/Central American and Caribbean Tennis Confederation Under-12 tournament that concluded in the Dominican Republic yesterday.

Bermuda, who finished second place in pool A, secured their spot in the regional final for only the second time after the trio of Tristan Pettit, Jaden Jones and Dexter Snaith recorded a comfortable 3-0 win over Guyana in their final match of the tournament.

“A beautiful day for Bermuda tennis and the boys to have the opportunity to experience this, especially during these times while we are moving through a pandemic,” Manders said.

“It was just a great week of tennis; great focus, great determination. A lot of hard work that they have put in over the years and leading into this competition to put themselves at a level to be able to compete at the highest in this region.

“The only team we lost to was the best team in the competition [Dominican Republic I] and the rest of the competition we truly dominated, which is not something that we’ve seen.

“This is the second team that has qualified for the regional finals. It’s only been done once before, which was Benjamin Jones and Tre Mallory.”

Pettit and Jones recorded straight sets 6-0, 6-0 victories in their singles matches to clinch the best of three series against Guyana. Pettit and Snaith then prevailed 6-2, 6-2 in the doubles match to complete Bermuda’s third clean sweep of the week, having also beaten Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia 3-0.

“Another dominating performance,” Manders added. “The boys followed the game plan to a tee; listened through the entire match and implemented it just perfectly.

“We knew we had a great chance coming in to play against Guyana as they were the second team from what we saw as a weaker group, and the boys focused in and got the job done.

“Tristan Pettit and Jaden Jones did absolutely everything that was asked of them. And then Dexter Snaith and Tristan, even though 2-0 up, came out with the energy to close it out with a 3-0 to put us in the promotion spot to move to the next stage, which is the finals of the regional.”

Dominican Republic I and Dominican Republic II clinched the remaining spots for the regional final, scheduled to be held in Mexico in November.