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Bermuda's young tennis players got a taste of the punishing atmosphere of international competition as they struggled in the heat of El Salvador.

Six of our brightest young talents travelled to the mountainous Central American republic to represent Bermuda in the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup.

But the opposition proved as hard to handle as the rarified air altitude, with the two teams winning just one match in the tournament - a 3-0 Fed Cup victory over Aruba for the girls.

The trip highlighted, once again, how far behind Bermuda is in its tennis development programmes compared with its regional rivals.

And it also emphasized for the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association, the most pressing problems for its top players - insufficient access to coaching, insufficient court-time and most crucially insufficient access to quality competition.

The Davis Cup team - Alexander Cooper, Neal Towlson and Freddie Wade jnr - and the Fed Cup team - Cayla Cross, Catherine Cooke and Carolita Joseph, turned in some creditable performances.

But they were up against teams who were on a different level in terms of their preparation and experience.

It's a problem the BLTA is well aware of.

Alison Towlson, who is looking into ways of improving junior development on the island for the association, traveled with the team as manager.

She said: "They did well. Each day you go without winning, it can be discouraging but they worked hard and came away with a better sense of what they need to do to improve.

"We weren't completely outclassed by any stretch of the imagination. It's just a matter of having more time to train, having experience of playing different matches, different opposition.

"It was about 90 degrees and they had altitude to deal with, but they made the adjustment very well."

Towlson believes there is a lot of work to be done off the court, though, before Bermuda's teams can travel to such tournaments with a genuine hope of competing.

The facilities in El Salvador, one of the world's poorest countries, were, she said, a different class to what we have here.

And the top teams - the ultimate winners were Guatemala and the Bahamas - were much better prepared.

"Football and cricket have received great financial grants. This would not require the same level of financial support.

"But we do need a national junior development programme in place and a national coach in place so we can allow our juniors to train all year round, rather than just for a few weeks before a competition."

She said appointing a national coach who could devote 100 per cent of his time to co-ordinating the island's different programmes and bringing through talented youngsters was necessary. And she believes the BLTA, under new president David Lambert, is starting to move in the right direction.

A lecture for parents on how to win tennis scholarships overseas was held at the national centre last night and the association is working on getting as many players as possible on the ITF summer circuit.

"There is a lot of work to be done," said Towlson, " but we are seeing a real push to network more and to get more exposure for our players."[[In-content Ad]]

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