JAMAICA'S TOP tennis player, Ryan Russell, is on his way to Florida where he will spend the next three weeks.Russell is coming off a successful trip to Kuwait where he won the doubles but lost in the quarter-finals of the singles in a Futures event in the Middle East country .
He will play in three USA Futures events in Florida before returning home.
The first of the clay court tournaments, the USA F9 Futures, starts tomorrow in Vero Beach, Florida, the second (F10 Futures) runs between May 9-15 in Orange Park while the final (F11 Futures) event is set for Tampa between May 16-22.
RUSSELL'S TRIUMPHS
In the doubles in Kuwait, Russell teamed with Florin Mergea of Romania to beat No. 2 seeds Jakub Hasek and Josef Nesticky of the Czech Republic 6-1, 3-0 ret.
Leading up to the final, Russell and Mergea dispatched the challenges of Peter Mayer-Tischer/Roman Valent (Germany/
Switzerland 7-5, 6-3 in the semi-finals after securing a walkover against Fredrick Bergh/Ahmed Rabee (Sweden/Kuwait) in the quarters.
They had earlier beaten the French team of Benjamin Dracos/Julien Maes 6-4, 6-2 in the first round.
In the singles, Russell's defeat came at the hands of German Dominik Meffert, who won 6-1, 6-1.
Earlier in the singles, the lefthander had beaten Dutchman Jasper Smit 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 in the second round and Brunei's Abdul-Rahman Shehab 6-0, 6-2 in the opening round.
