Vitamin Water Open champions Andy Bray and Zara DeSilva will lead two strong-looking national tennis teams at the Island Games in Rhodes, Greece this summer.

Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association unveiled their male and female squads earlier this week, with the overseas-based Jenson Bascome, Gavin Manders and David Thomas joining Bray in the men’s line-up along with Vitamin Water finalist Jacob Trott.

In the women’s team, DeSilva and perennial Bermuda number one Ashley Brooks are making the trip along with Caitlin Gordon, Jacklyn Lambert and Cayla Cross.

After winning a total of eight medals at the 2005 Island Games in Gibraltar — including a silver in the men’s team competition and a bronze in the women’s teams — Bermuda’s leading player Bray is confident they can improve on that impressive performance this time around.

“From the men’s side of things the team is almost exactly the same other than Jacob coming in for James (Collieson) and the women’s team looks strong as well — so overall I think we’ve got a very good chance of doing well once again,” he said.

“I won the silver medal in the singles last time and while obviously I want to go one better than that, my priority has to be winning gold in the team event.

“I think we’ve got the players to do it. Jenson, Gavin and Dave are all in the States playing a lot of tennis and when they come back just before we head off to Rhodes I expect them to be ready.

“With them off the Island, I’ve been training three times a week with the coaches Ricky Mallory and Steve Bean, doing a lot of fitness work, drills and things like that.

“The schedule is very hectic at the Games with all the competitions going on. It’s a week of solid tennis and you can expect to play at least two matches a day. It’s going to be very hot over there in July as well, so working on fitness and endurance has been very important.

“I’m looking forward to it. It was a great experience and a real honour to represent Bermuda the last time around and it would be nice to help the men’s team go one better.”