GBTI Open Championships …
ADAM Alves returned from his hiatus on a high as he claimed victory during his match-up with veteran player Gilbert Barckoy when the GBTI Open tennis tournament continued Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon at the GBTI Recreational Facility lawn tennis courts in Bel Air Park. After losing the first set 6-0, Alves, who is a former Junior star, began to find his range with some booming first serves and ground strokes which proved too much for Barckoy who was defeated 6-4, 6-4 in the subsequent two sets. This match was seen as the first major upset of the tournament.
Kijana Lewis was another player in fine form as she too employed some attractive ground strokes in her match against Arnold Madramootoo who is known in local circles for retrieving just about anything.
The match eventually went on for two hours with Lewis, who is the brother of former National Open champion Diwani Lewis, emerging victorious from the encounter which ended 7-5, 6-4.
There was also competition in the Men’s Doubles category which saw Sandeep Chand and Andre Lopes easily defeating Robert Mansell and Ryan Van Sluytman 6-0, 6-2 with an exhibition of serve-and-volley tennis.
In the women’s category Thi Fernandes and Carol Humphrey defeated Grace McCalman and Tanya Niamatali 6-2, 7-5 and Nicola Ramdyhan and Krystal Sukra defeated Abigail Welch and Aretta Dey 6-1, 6-1.
The veteran pairing of Gilbert Barckoy and Grace Humphrey defeated juniors Stanley Ming and Aretta Dey 6-2, 6-2 in their mixed doubles match.
Top seed Gavin Lewis progressed to an easy 6-0, 6-1 win over Berbician Brian Ramsukh while second seed Daniel Lopes also progressed as he bested Ryan Van Sluytman 6-1, 6-1 in the Junior Boys’ Singles category. Saevion David Longe will next face Lopes after defeating Dominic Fraser 6-1, 6-1, while Khalif Gobin will face Gavin Lewis in the other semi-final match-up after a hard-fought 6-1 6-2 win over Stanley Ming.
In the Girls’ Singles category Nicola Ramdhyan defeated Gail Ann Ogle Grandison  6-0,  6-0,  to advance to the semi-finals where she will face Krystal Sukra who advanced with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Aretta Dey.
Berbician Tanya Niamatalli advanced to the Girls’ semi-finals with an easy 6-0, 6-0 win over Gabriella Blackman but later lost to top seed Shawna Gentle 6-3, 6-0, despite a good showing. Gentle now awaits the winner of the Sukra and Ramdyhan match-up, for the finals scheduled for next weekend.