Bahamian professional tennis player Justin Roberts and his doubles partner, Antiguan Jody Maginley, are into the semi-final of the Legacy Bank NWA Tennis Series that gets underway today.
The M15 International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tournament is being played in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The duo got there with a walkover quarterfinal victory over Americans Justin Butsch and Alex Rybakov. One of their opponents tested positive for COVID-19.
“We know the guy who tested positive and his partner. We are good friends with them. It is unfortunate for them that they could not play today. It also affects the coming weeks for them also. I feel bad for them,” Roberts said.
They used the “day off” to get some more practice in as they prepare for their opponents today.
“We are ready to go tomorrow (today),” Roberts said. “We are going to do the same thing we have been doing – going out there and serving big and fighting. I do not know who we are playing, and I do not care. We are going to go and play our game and see what happens.”
The players they are going to play today were revealed late yesterday evening. They will go up against British player Charles Brook and Chilean Matias Soto.
The duo has played a lot of games together. They last played on the ITF Tour back in early March. Roberts said that although they did not compete, they still have chemistry because they train together.
“Chemistry has always been good between us. We live together and train together. We play a lot of matches together so there is no need to play to get into a good chemistry with each other. It is just a matter of playing matches and be match-fit,” Roberts said.
In the first round on Wednesday, the duo played against Bolivian Boris Arias and Venezuelan Ricardo Rodriquez. They won in two straight sets, 7-6 and 6-3. Roberts said they are happy with their all-round performance. Their opponents in that round were the second seed at the tournament.
The former Arizona State University and University of South Florida player is ranked at number 481 on the latest ITF doubles rankings on November 2. Before the pandemic shut down tennis back in March, the Bahamian was ranked at a career-high number 475. On the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking, he is currently pegged at number 961. His career-high ATP ranking was 918 back on March 2.
On Tuesday, at that same tournament, Roberts fell 6-1 and 6-4 to Jamaican Blaise Bicknell in round two of the qualifying draw singles competition. On Monday he took down Bulgarian Ivailo Keremedchiev in straight sets, 6-3 and 6-4 in the first round of the qualifying draw.
Roberts is the highest ranked Bahamian male tennis player.
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source https://thenassauguardian.com/roberts-advances-to-doubles-semis/
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