Despite their early departure from the main draw, in the consolation division of the boys u-14 category, Guyana’s Gavin Lewis and Daniel Lopes rose to the top of the clan to face each other in the finals of the International Tennis Federation Junior tournament currently on in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Following his takedown of St Vincent’s Justin Robinson, Lewis advanced to overthrow the category’s number one ranked Shane Mustor in the quarterfinals. Playing a concise version of the game, Lewis dealt Mustor a two-set defeat with a 4 – 1, 4 – 1 score.
His latest victim in the semi-finals was his fellow countryman Benedict Sukra as Lewis sliced his way to victory when he cut down Sukra with a clinical 4 – 0, 4 – 1 win.
Meanwhile Lopes, in his rampage following his takeout of the division’s number three seed Juanaldo Greig with a 4 – 1, 4 – 2 win, advanced to take on the number two seed Jared Spencer in the semis.
Lopes defeated the Bajan in a three-match set. Despite taking the first set 4 – 2 in his favour, Spencer underestimated things as Lopes returned to deal him a 4 – 1 set, before finishing things off with a bagel. Lewis and Lopes were scheduled to go head to head yesterday to determine the ultimate winner.
However over in the doubles category things were not as bright for the pair as they were out-mastered in the quarterfinals by the second seeded team of Trinidad’s Elan Mendes and Barbados’ Dylan Hall. Following their win against the Bajan team of Andrew Lewis and Symmonds the pair were defeated 6 – 1, 6 – 2 by Mendes and Hall.
In spite of their easy 2 – 6 take of the first set, Symmonds and partner Lewis had to give it their all to take in the second set and only narrowed the margin of loss of the 7 – 5 second set. The third set also had Lewis and Symmonds struggling, and it was Lopes and Lewis who prevailed when the dust settled to see the set end 10 – 4.
Over in the girls u-18 category things were just as damp as Aruna Ramrattan was beaten by Germany’s Jasmin Jebawy 6 – 0, 6 – 1 following her first round victory against SVG’s Olivia Haslam.
And in the doubles, Guyana’s Krystal Sukra teaming up with Barbados’ Michaela Batson was beaten 6 – 3, 6 – 2 by the mixed island team of Barbados’ Ancia Ifill and her teammate Trinidad’s Amanda Soo Ping Chow.
