ACTION in the inaugural staging of the 2017 Damion Johnson Men’s and Women’s Professional Tennis Singles Series begins today at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre starting at 9:00 am.

ACTION in the inaugural staging of the 2017 Damion Johnson Men’s and Women’s Professional Tennis Singles Series begins today at the Eric Bell Tennis Centre starting at 9:00 am.

Six of the seeded players in the men’s and women’s singles have all received byes into the second round which starts tomorrow.

The players that have received byes into the second round in the men’s singles are top seed Damion Johnson, second seed Dwayne Pagon, and third seed Jeremy Miller.

On the women’s side, the players receiving byes to the second round are top seed Ffion Fletcher, second seed Pauline Hylton and third seed Shae-Ann Kamika. They are expected to be in action tomorrow morning.

Johnson, in his second round, will play the winner of today’s first-round action between John Azar Jr and Joshua Graveney, while Pagon will face the winner of the Cole McNair and Jevaughn Mullings match.

Meanwhile, Fletcher will meet the winner of the Haley McNair and Kaley Chin match, and Hylton goes up against the winner of the Selena Bird and Racine Malcolm encounter in second-round action.

Matches scheduled to be played today are fourth-seeded Cliff Dwyer going up against unseeded Nigel Casserly; fifth-seeded Bicknell taking on unseeded Jevan Hewitt; sixth-seeded Yussuf Migoko playing unseeded Ryan Cox.

Other matches scheduled in the men’s singles are Damar Johnson vs Roshane Allen; John Azar Sr vs Oric Angus; Dane Vernon vs Tariq Simon; Mario Campbell vs Gregory Spencer; Damani Cain vs Mathew Rodriquez; and John Chin vs Romeo Edwards.

Matches scheduled in the women’s singles today are Emma Dibbs vs Taylor Marzouca; Sheada Nickle vs Moesha Fox; Kathrine Dibbs vs Jenna Harrison.

The players in the men’s singles are vying for the top cash award of $150,000 and the championship trophy; $70,000 and a trophy for the beaten finalist; $35,000 going to the beaten semi-finalists; and $17,500 to the losing quarter-finalists.

In the women’s section, the winner will receive $70,000 and the championship trophy, runner-up $30,000 and a trophy, losing semi-finalists $17,000.

The sponsors are The Gore Family Foundation, Pure National Ice, Mayberry Investment Limited, Lee’s Fifth Avenue, Event Entertainment and Tennis Jamaica.

— Gerald Reid

— Gerald Reid