We landed in Kingston, Jamaica via Miami this afternoon. It was hot. The immigration and customs took a bit of time but we finally met our driver who was supposed to drive us to another city Ocho Rios for the tournament. It was interesting that the driver carried a golden colour gun on him. He took his own sweet time to get out of the city – wasted almost 90 minutes to collect some toll cash from his office etc – so the journey took over 3.5 hours. By the time we arrived in Ocho Rios we were quite tired as the Air Conditioning of the car wasn’t working. The Tournament was supposed to happened at a hotel facility and we all were going to stay there as a part of special package. When we arrived there we were told that the courts were not ready and clay had sunk and the tournament was moving back to Kingston. They offered that we could stay in the hotel and travel every day to Kingston but we decided against it. The hotel was closed for a year after the hurricane in 2025 and had opened just one part of it for this tournament on the day of our arrival. It was in a real bad state. My dad quickly booked another hotel and we requested the same driver to drop us back. Finally we reached back Kingston after several hours of driving.
What a life experience this has been. I learnt a great deal from parents – never panic in a crisis and safety matters first.
ITF Jamaica Kingston Ocho Rios
Last modified: September 21, 2026
