Meet a member: Jimmy Tasker, IC of Barbados

Jimmy Tasker was born and raised in the beautiful island paradise of Barbados. His father Jimmy Tasker Snr. was a well-respected tennis coach on the island and it was no surprise that young Jimmy and his two older sisters were all handed racquets at an early age. A natural talent with a feel for the ball that can’t be taught but which one has to be born with, left-handed Jimmy became dominant at both the junior and senior levels in Barbados while still a young teenager.

Jimmy represented the island in the Brandon Trophy – a Caribbean Open tournament – from as early as age 16 and also played on the Caribbean team in the Davis Cup before each island had its own team. Once Barbados had its own Davis Cup team, he would go on to represent his country between 1989-1992. One of the highlights of his career was his participation at Junior Wimbledon in 1980 where he competed alongside juniors Mats Wilander and Henri Leconte.

Jimmy attended and played college tennis for Houston Baptist College with his two older sisters and went on to play the American Circuit for 3 months. Jimmy has continued to play tennis and has represented his Club at every interclub tournament for which he has been available. His introduction to IC Barbados some 12 years ago was through another highly respected member of the tennis community of Barbados, Mr. Peter Symmonds.  Jimmy’s love of the sport, along with his desire to give back to it after bringing him so many happy memories and positive aspects to him and his family over the years, is what led to his decision to accept the invitation to become a member. He has contributed in many ways to the IC of Barbados, including serving as captain of the Barbados team to the IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge tournament in the Bahamas in 2019. He has participated in most of the invitationals to IC events since becoming a member and counts the reconnection with comrades from his earlier tennis days as well as the forming of new friendships, among the many aspects of what he loves most.

Jimmy is currently looking forward to attending the IC of Canada’s 60th anniversary event in September and then onwards to India’s 75th celebrations in 2026. Jimmy can always be counted on to enjoy a friendly game of tennis, which he preferably follows up with some socializing on the beach with his friends and/or guests.

You can connect with Jimmy on Instagram here.

A great start to The IC Rod Laver European 16U Junior Challenge

A great start to the week with some very close and exciting matches. The eight competing countries Italy, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Spain, Israel, Great Britain and Slovenia were put in to two round robin groups for the first three days. In Group A a high class match in which Italy eventually defeated the seeded Great Britain team 4-2. All matches but one had tie break sets including Italy winning two of their matches in third 10 point tie break sets. This included the number 2 girls match where Italy were 9-6 down and came back to win 13-11 otherwise it would have been three matches each and a mixed tie break to decide the result. In the other match in Group A Ireland defeated host nation Germany 4-2.

In Group B there were also some very close matches. This included Slovenia firstly tying with Spain at 3 all having saved a match point in the mens doubles that would have given Spain a 4-2 victory. Then with Slovenia going on to win the mixed doubles tie break decider. In the other match seeded Israel came through 4- 2 against Austria.

The matches have been played in a good IC spirit of "Hands across the net friendship across the ocean" and the juniors are having a great experience and already playing memorable matches and making international friends. There will now be two more days of Round Robin matches before the final day play offs against opposite numbers.