Multiple times national tennis champion Aleena Edwards has allayed concerns that she will be representing T&T as a player or manager at the International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) World Championship, carded from Sunday to June 6 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Though highly capable of wearing the red, white and black for T&T at the tournament, concerns were raised by veteran tennis ace Dexter St Louis, who in strongly worded email accused her of giving the impression that she is the team’s manager/director.
Contacted yesterday Edwards, who is the tennis association’s general secretary, denied this categorically, saying she will be the country’s delegate for the ITTF annual general meeting (AGM) and conference which are held every four years.
Edwards, who admitted to cutting short her career to join the sport’s administration, will be dipping into her own pocket to fund the work-related trip estimated to cost about $10,500.
From this trip the former tennis queen intends to equip herself with information that would be used to better the sport locally. St Louis, who is based in France where he plays tennis professionally, has already been confirmed as a member of the T&T team along with his step-daughter Rheann Chung with Anthony Corbin as the third person. They will contest the Men’s and Women’s Singles.
In his email, he also accused Edwards of attempting to squeeze in local tennis champion Aaron Wilson into the main draw of the tournament, which was held on May 17 and featured 132 players.
According to St Louis, “I have been to seven World Championships dating back to 1985 and the last four of the seven was with Rheann Chung and Anthony Corbin. We never had any problems, but only now and this is because of her pushy attitude and her trying to window dress to probably give someone in the Association an impression that she is some sort of manager director.”
St Louis also made it clear that he did not want Edwards doing anything for them.
“Let me be clear to all, we do not want Aleena Edwards doing anything for us during the World Championships, may it be draws, advice, acting or pretending to act on our behalf. We are fully professional players living here in Europe for over the past 25 years and have been handling our own affairs.
“I am saying this because already there were problems in the registration with her trying to enter Aaron Wilson on the eleventh hour on March 29 before the close of entries,” the veteran player said.
Edwards, who is set to leave on Friday, has refused further comment.