By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

TEAM Bahamas’ trio of Jackson Mactaggart, Jerald Carroll and William McCartney suffered a tough 0-3 loss to Canada yesterday at the World Junior Tennis (WJT) Junior Davis Cup/Junior Billie Jean King Cup North, Central American and Caribbean Final Qualifying Tournament in Orlando, Florida.

Mactaggart was bested by Canadian Felix Roussel in their singles matchup. The latter took set one 6-1 and followed it up with a 6-4 performance in the consecutive set.

Carroll fought hard against Canada’s Miko LaPalme but was unable to avoid defeat in singles competition. The sets were tightly-contested but The Bahamas’ representative went down 3-6, 3-6.

McCartney and Carroll then teamed up to face LaPalme and Quincy Yao. The tandem were knocked off 3-6, 2-6 in straight sets.

Phillip Major Jr, who is the captain of Team Bahamas, said despite the 0-3 defeat there were some positive takeaways from the opening day of competition.

“They played well and had their chances but they had a little bit of a tough time converting today. There were definitely a lot of positives from that because they were able to give themselves chances. That means that going forward we are looking to convert on those chances so overall I would say today that the boys did a great job,” Major said.

Over a month ago, The Bahamas advanced out of the Junior Billie Jean King Cup/Junior Davis Cup North, Central American and the Caribbean Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic with an unblemished record. With adversity now in front of them, Major believes this latest hurdle can help them to improve. “It helps them in a way because they were able to get the first match nerves out and were able to settle in and prepare themselves to play some good tennis. Hopefully, with them being able to settle in a little bit more will come with some better tennis. They were definitely keeping up with the kids but it is just now a matter of converting the chances that we get,” he said.

Next up for The Bahamas will be the United States of America this morning at 10am.

Major gave a sneak peek of his message to Team Bahamas before this morning’s match.

“We had to win our pre-qualifying tournament to get here and, with that being said, the guys had to push and put themselves in this position to be here.

“Whereas, the USA was already here so the whole message tomorrow is as the underdogs we have to go out and play with our hearts and fight until the end. With fighting comes some of your best tennis. When you do it from your heart that can really translate to the game,” he said.

Competition will wrap up in Orlando, Florida on Friday. The top two nations from the North, Central American and Caribbean region will advance to the Junior Davis Cup Finals in November.