Bermuda’s under-14 tennis squad embarked on their journey to the International Tennis Federation World Junior Tennis tournament in El Salvador with “high expectations” yesterday.

Flying the island’s banner are No 1 player Ricky Mallory Jr, No 2 player Benjamin Jones and Nicholas Cooper, who are being accompanied by coach Gavin Manders.

“I have high expectations from this group of boys,” Ricky Mallory Sr, the national tennis director, said. “We have set a target of a top-three finish and, with Manders there as team coach is a definite plus as he knows what it takes to accomplish this goal.

“We have one of the strongest teams that the association has ever sent in this age group. Benjamin and Nicholas have been preparing for this event with coach Manders for the past six to eight months, while Trey [Ricky Mallory Jr] has been training under the watchful eye of coach Lawrence Carpio at the LAT Academy in Florida since October. Trey has participated in and won several USTA tournaments since being in the United States.

“The boys can expect hot conditions in El Salvador, but I’m sure they will be able to cope.”

Michael Wolfe, the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association president, added: “Having watched the team training, I am expecting good results for Bermuda. We have two veteran players of this competition in Trey and Ben, while Nick joins the team for his first international experience representing Bermuda.

“The players have been working really hard and are showing constant improvement. Trey, who has taken a leave from his Florida-based tennis academy to join the team, is coming off some impressive results against the international competition, so we are hoping his experience will help all the players to produce a good effort.”

The tournament, reserved for countries from the North and Central American and Caribbean zone, will be held from tomorrow to next Wednesday and will be played on hard surface at the Federación Salvadorena de Tenis.

The format will include countries playing each other in a best-of-three series involving two singles and a doubles match.

The draw will be held at today’s captains meeting.

Other countries competing include Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago and the US Virgin Islands.