Bermuda’s girls’ team have been playing at a disadvantage at the North, Central American and Caribbean pre-qualifier for the ITF World Junior Championships in El Salvador this week.

It emerged yesterday that Imani Phillips has been deemed ineligible to play in the tournament by organisers, leaving team-mates Kaila Harvey and Kaylah Ming to carry the workload in her absence.

Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association did not respond to questions surrounding Phillips’ dilemma yesterday.

However, according to family sources, the Warwick Academy student has been ruled out because of an immigration issue.

Meanwhile, Bermuda’s girls lost their final group D match with Puerto Rico yesterday. At press time Bermuda trailed Puerto Rico 2-0 in the best-of-three series.

Bermuda girls made a promising start to the tournament after handing Panama a 2-1 defeat before losing their remaining group matches with El Salvador and Puerto Rico.

Bermuda’s boys’ team of Trey Mallory, Moziah Selassie and Tego Bean were scheduled to face Barbados in their final group C match yesterday. Bermuda’s boys suffered losses in their opening two matches with Honduras and Dominican Republic.