THE more young Bermudians who are playing tennis at college, the better for the future of the sport on the island.

And if that is true, then island tennis is looking pretty healthy right now.

This week, we take a look at most of the plethora of youngsters who are combining top-class tennis coaching with their studies, with the help of information provided to BLTA president David Lambert from parents.

Lambert said the association was excited to see so many young players pursuing thier tennis at a high level in college and he said younger players were already being groomed to follow in their footsteps.

"Collegiate tennis is near the pinnacle of the pyramid structure that the association has for tennis, with schools and grass roots programmes at the bottom and Davis and Fed Cup at the top," said Lambert.

"We are very pleased to see so many young people continuing with the sport and we will keep in contact with their coaches to try and get monthly reports on their progress."

Zarah DeSilva is on a tennis scholarship at the University of South Carolina, Spartenburg, having previously studied for six years at Saddlebrook Tennis Academy in Florida.

She plays for the college team and matches started last weekend and will continue until the end of the school year.

DeSilva has won all the major junior and senior tournaments in Bermuda at least once and has been a member of the Fed Cup team for the past four years.

Her aims are to play number one for her college team, to compete in the Pan Am Games and the Olympics, and to continue representing the island in the Fed Cup.

Danielle Paynter studies at York University in Toronto, where she plays for the college team. She is a veteran of the Fed Cup team.

On the local scene, she has won at least 16 titles including the Minute Maid, Reefs and Port Royal junior tournaments, as well as the Heineken Open and the Port Royal Open at senior level.

Ashley Brooks is one of four Bermudians attending the Van Der Meer Tennis Academy. The 14-year-old already has Fed Cup experience and has excelled in international tournaments as well as local.

Last October, Brooks won the Caribbean 14-and-under Developmental Championships singles title, overpowering Trinidad's Delaney Brittany in the final. At the corresponding tournmament a year earlier, Brooks teamed up with Bermuda team-mate Sasha Fisher to win the girls doubles title.

While at Van Der Meer, she has played alongside some of the world's top juniors in some prestigious events like the Chanda Rubin Van Der Meer ITF Junior Classic and the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships in Key Biscane, Florida. This weekend Brooks will be competing in the Junior Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. She aims to achieve a world ranking.

Tara Lambert studies at the University of South Carolina, where she plays number three on the team.

A former number one Bermuda junior, Lambert enjoys the number one mixed doubles ranking in Bermuda, having won a clutch of titles with Ricky Mallory.

As a junior she won domestic titles including The Reefs tournament, the Minute Maid, the Cromwell Manders and the Coral Beach Invitational.

Sasha, Zoe and Kara Fisher are all studying at Millfield School in Somerset, England, where there are five qualified LTA coaches.

Each of the tennis triplets has appeared for the team of four as they advanced from county matches through regionals and onto the four-team national finals of the British Schools HSBC National Team Championships.

Sasha and Kara have played regularly in the 15-and-under team and Zoe, from time to time.

In other competition, Sasha and her partner Melissa Pursey won the 16-and-under doubles at both the Harpenden Tennis Club British Schools Open Tournament and the South West England Schools 16-and-under Doubles Championships.

Kara and Zoe were semi-finalists together at the Harpenden tournament.

Sasha Fisher is a Fed Cup player, who became the youngest player to win a senior 'A' title in Bermuda at the age of 13 in 2000.

She has twice won doubles titles at the Caribbean 14-and-under Developmental Championships and also finished third in the singles in 2001.

Jenson Bascome graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia last May and he plans to return to the same school to study for a doctorate in physical therapy.

The 23-year-old Bascome has enjoyed numerous successes on the local scene and has become a fixture in the Davis Cup team.

Jovan Whitter is another student of Van Der Meer Tennis Academy and in September he will follow in Bascome's footsteps when he goes to study at Temple, where he has been offered an athletic scholarship and a place on the tennis team.

Whitter has shone on the local junior scene and competed successfully in many tournaments overseas, earning himself a USTA 14-and-under ranking of number five in New England at one point.

Representing Bermuda, Whitter reached the singles final in the 1999 Caribean 14-and-under Developmental Championships. And he made his debut for the Davis Cup team as a 16-year-old in St. Vincent in 2002.

Ryan Swan is another 17-year-old who made his Davis Cup debut last year, beating Whitter by a few weeks to the honour of being the youngest Davis Cup player in Bermuda's history.

He is currently the international baccalaureate at Sevenoaks School in England, where is in the first team for tennis and is ranked number four in the school.

Swan started playing tennis at the age of eight, played his first junior tournament at the age of nine and has won numerous domestic singles and doubles junior titles since.

Gavin Manders is another of the Bermuda contingent to be studying at the Van Der Meer Tennis Academy, where he has gained enough credits to graduate six months ahead of time.

Manders has won numerous junior titles in Bermuda. At the 1999 Reefs Junior tournament, he pulled off a remarkable treble when he took the under-12, under-14 and under-18 titles.

He was a semi-finalist in the Caribbean 14-and-under Developmental Championships in 2000. Manders has also played several overseas tournaments including the Georgia Nike Junior Open, where he has reached the last eight in the main draw and the semi-finals in the consolation.

He has reached several semi-finals in Florida events and also won the Turkey Bowl and Pine's Creek Country Club under-16 tournaments, also in Florida.

Romar Douglas earned a one-year partial tennis scholarship which allowed him to start a one-year term at the Van Der Meer Tennis Academy last September.

In 2001, Douglas was Bermuda's top-ranked junior and crept into the top ten at men's senior level.

His time at Van Der Meer has given him the opportunity to participate in some top junior events in the US, such as the Diet Coke Tennis Championship, the Chanda Rubin Georgia 2002 ITF Junior Tennis Classic and the 2002 K-Swiss Junior Clay Competition.

He recently competed in the Gatewood Winter Games, where he won the doubles title and also reached the semi-finals in the singles, only to lose in a third-set tiebreaker.

Jevon Roberts is studying at the Southern Adventist University in Atlanta. He has won 'B' events in Bermuda at the Port Royal Open and the Argus Open.

At junior level, Roberts has won numerous titles, including the Minute maid, Reefs, Cromwell Manders and two BLTA Grand Prix tournaments.

John Masters is studying at St. Paul's in Concord, New Hampshire and was part of the team that won the New England Championships last year.

Masters has fared well in local junior tournaments and was part of Bermuda's Junior Davis Cup team that played in the Dominican Republic last year.

John Wardman won the Coral Beach Club under-18 Open last December and the 18-year-old was runner-up in the Colonial Open 'B' division last summer.

He is a senior at Bishops College School, where he expects to play number one in the varsity tennis team this year.

During his freshman year at St. George's School, Wardman won several tournaments and also attended Saddlebrook Tennis Academy in the summer of 2000.

Christopher (Bizbee) Wardman, John's 16-year-old brother, has also excelled at tennis. He played varsity tennis at Trinity Spawling School last year in his freshman year and was elected team captain this year.