JAMAICA’S Blaise Bicknell made easy work of his New Zealand opponent David Kennerley with a crushing 6-0, 6-0 win to move into the second round of the Boys’ 18 and under singles at the 2019 International Tennis Federation (ITF) Jamaica Invitational Junior Tennis Tournament at Eric Bell Tennis Centre yesterday.

The 104th World-ranked Bicknell is the only Jamaican left in his category.

The top rated Jamaican, who has won two singles and a doubles title on the junior circuit this year, will be in action in the second round that begins today at 9:00 am against Alexander Bucurescu from Romania.

Meanwhile, Michaela Stephens, the only Jamaican remaining in the girls’ singles, will be in second-round action when she takes on unseeded American Kathryn Treiber at approximately 10:00 am.

The top seed in the Girls’ 18 and under singles, Ava Krug from the United States of America (USA) received a bye to the second round where she will face unseeded compatriot Aleia De Buretel.

A number of Jamaicans went down with heavy defeats yesterday.

In the boys’ singles, Damani Cain lost 6-0, 6-3 to Alexander Pustovit from Russia; Blake Shoucair went down 6-0, 6-2 to Tom Grosjean from France; Cole McNair went down heavily to Evan Wein from the USA 6-0, 6-0; and Delano Reeves lost 6-0, 6-0 to Connor Krug from USA.

The Jamaican girls also lost heavily, as Hayley McNair went down 6-2, 6-0 to Gabrielle Leslie from Barbados; Courtney Chin was whipped by Aleia De Buretel from USA 6-0, 6-0; Thandie Sampson was trounced 6-0, 6-0 by Elizabeth Jones from USA; Kailey Chin was crushed 6-0, 6-0 by Nevena Carton from the USA; and Abigail Perue went down 6-0, 6-0 to Alejandra Ramirez from USA.

In the boys’ doubles, the Jamaican pair of Cain and Joshua Graveney lost in straight sets 6-0, 6-0 to the pair of Sean Cooper from Great Britain and Ethan Muza from the USA, while girls’ doubles pair of Katherine Dibbs and Stephens lost 6-0, 6-2 to the pair of Carton from USA and Anika Jaskova from Slovakia.

— Gerald Reid