Phillips unable to cash in
Daniel Phillips suffered defeat on the last stop of the Caribbean Junior Circuit with his coach Sam Maybury taking full responsibility.
Phillips, 13, was handed a defaulted loss in Dominican Republic Copa Merangue to local player Enmanuel Munoz on Monday.
Heavy rain forced the match to be halted with Munoz winning the first set 6-2 before Phillips came back to win 7-5 in the second. Phillips was leading 1-0 in the deciding set when rain forced the players off the court.
Maybury took the opportunity during the anticipated hour-long delay to go, with Phillips, to find an ATM machine. When they returned the officials handed the match to Munoz.
“We got lost looking for an ATM machine and I couldn’t find a hotspot to call them,” Maybury said.
“When we showed up they said they had tried to text us. Strictly my fault, but I needed to make a simple cell call and couldn’t.”
The loss was the second for Phillips in Dominican Republic after claiming under-14 titles in Aruba, Bahamas and Jamaica during the tour.
On Sunday, Phillips lost his qualifying match against Alejandro Licea of Dominican Republic 6-0, 6-0.
“He struck a wall and couldn’t recover,” Maybury said. “Truth be told, mission accomplished,” Maybury said on social media.
“We give thanks for an outstanding summer tour. We were definitely flying high, a lot of new experiences, good and bad.
“At the very least we can say we did what we were here to do.”