The 17th staging of the annual Guardian Life Open Junior Tennis Series serves off today at the Liguanea Club, St Andrew, starting at 9 a.m.
The first of two tournaments in the series will end tomorrow with the finals scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. The closing and presentation ceremony will follow directly after the finals.
The contestants will vie for trophy prizes in the categories boys' 10, 12, 14, 16 & 18 and girls' beginners, intermediary and advanced levels.
In addition to trophy prizes, the winners in each category will also receive points towards their national ranking.
The tournament director is Llockett McGregor.
While the semi-finalists have virtually selected themselves, the focus will be on the battle for relegation in the Magnum/JB Rum/South Central Confed Super League competition.
Manchester's Hillstars copped a rare point against semi-final-bound Sporting Central Academy in a 1-1 draw. Hogarth Henry scored for Hillstars in the 48th minute. Sporting Central goalscorer was Kwesi Watt in the 12th minute.
Holland Police Youth Club of St Elizabeth earned three valuable points against Ricam Academy, winning 3-0. Dilandrew Steven scored twice while Marlon Fletcher got one in time added on.
There were no such luck for the Clarendon pair of New Bowens and already relegated Kemps Hill, who lost heavily. New Bowens went down 6-0 to semi-final contenders St Bess FC while semi-final prospects Tru-Juice drubbed Kemps Hill 12-1. Tru-Juice had two hat-trick scorers in Seivon Thompson and Tevin James.
The second major trophy of the 2017 Manchester Football Association season will be decided tomorrow when Alligator Pond take on Porus in the final of the Magnum/Captain's Bakery Major League.
Alligator Pond has been the most dominant team in the preliminaries, and easily secured their spot after scoring in both halves to defeat Villa 2-0. Juave Adams had a dream semi-final, producing the only two goals of the match.
Porus were made to work hard for their spot after outlasting Comfort 1-0. Kemoy Slowley's goal two minutes before the half-time interval sealed the issue. Interestingly, Comfort, who had defeated Porus in the preliminary round, failed to capitalise on their opportunities.
At stake in tomorrow's final is the $250,000 winners' prize and the automatic choice to represent the parish in next season's South Central Confed Super League.
Los Perfectos maintained their lead in the Jamalco-sponsored Manchester Division One competition after defeating DC Strikers 3-1. The teams were locked at 1-1 at half-time before Christopher Campbell's brace in the second half provided cushion and eventual victory. The win was Los Perfectos' fourth in five games and also made them the only unbeaten team in the league.
Three teams share second place on 10 points. They are Old England, Silent Hill and Clandon Strikers.
Earlier this week, Plouden moved to nine points with a 1-0 win over Mandeville United while Central United got their first win with a 4-0 drubbing of Hope Village.
Downs and Mile Gully are the early leaders of the Moorlands-sponsored Pat Anderson Under-17 football competition in Manchester, following second-round play earlier this week.
Mile Gully, who scored a 4-0 win over 360 Degree on opening day, outscored Hillstars 5-2, courtesy of double strikes from Andre Campbell and Marlon Miller. They were also gifted an own goal by Hillstars. Downs also scored their second win, blowing away Manchester Academy 6-1 to follow up an earlier 2-0 win over May Day. There were also double strikes from Ramone Simpson and Jason Dyer.
In other results, Star Zone Academy, who began with an opening 5-0 loss to Comfort, had better fortune after drawing 1-1 with Comfort, who are now on four points, while the Silent Hill-
Mandeville United clash also ended 1-1.