WITH all the ATP Tour and WTA Tour tournaments on hiatus for the time being, Draft Central will take a look at various nations across the globe and analyse how the top players from that nation are performing. Our next nation is Jamaica.

Top ATP player: Roland Phillips
Rank: eq. 1593 (Doubles – as of 16/03/2020)
Age: 26
Points: 2
Tournaments played: 9

Roland Phillips is in a league of his own when it comes to tennis, being the only player listed on the ATP Tour. Remarkably, Jamaica was still able to play Davis Cup, taking on El Salvador in the most recent tie, down in the World Group II Play-Offs in San Salvador. Phillips played alongside side Jamaican-American national, 18-year-old Blaise Bicknell in the 3-1 loss. In his singles match during the Davis Cup tie, Phillips went down to Marcelo Arevalo-Gonzalez in three tight sets, 6-3 6-7 6-2 in just over two hours. In the doubles with Bicknell, the pair lost in straight sets in just under an hour.

The sole listed Jamaican is effectively a pure doubles player, and Phillips has only played one other event in 2020 – a doubles 25K event at Weston in Floria, where with partner, Hleb Maslau won through to a quarter final before going down in three sets. He is exclusively on the ITF Tour and Phillips looks likely to continue representing Jamaica in the Davis Cup, and travelling through America on the ITF Tour, having come close to a title in Cancun last year partnering Mwendwa Mbithi.

Other notable Jamaican WTA players: Nil.

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Top WTA player: Nil.

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Summary:

Jamaica is well known for a number of sports, but tennis is not one of them. They have just the one listed ATP Tour player, and he is a specialist doubles player. Bicknell might be a talent just at 18-years-old, but has chosen to represent the United States – where he lives – instead. The island nation is always likely to struggle for top-end tennis players, but it can at least continue to compete in Davis Cup for the time being.