ACTION in the Guyana Lawn Tennis Association (GTA)-organised Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry Limited (GBTI)-sponsored Open tennis tournament serves off at the GBTI Bel Air Park courts today, with over 130 entrants competing in 12 categories. Lots of excitement is expected especially in the Men’s category where four former champions are expected to compete for the title, including Phillip Squires and Anthony Downes, two dominant players in the past who will have to be at their best to challenge top seed  and defending champion Jeremy Miller and second seed Ezra Sue-Ho.
Men’s Doubles category is also expected to have close matches as most of the teams are good enough to capture the title with the pair of Jeremy Miller and Jason Andrews,  who are the defending champions, being tipped to cart off the title once again.
They will have to stave off stiff competition from the teams of Godfrey Lowden and Squires, Leyland Leacock and Downes, Sandeep Chand and Andre Lopes  and the junior pair of Daniel Lopes and Gavin Lewis, who have all made it to the final stages in previous tournaments.
In the Women’s category top juniors Shawna Gentle and Aruna Ramrattan will be the main challengers to defending champion Carol Humphrey while in the Under-18 Boys’ category top seeds Gavin Lewis and Daniel Lopes will renew their rivalry
In the senior categories, Godfrey Lowden and Omar Persaud will look to add to their titles in Doubles competition but strong competition is expected from top players Andre Lopes, Don Singh ,Rudy Grant and Carlos Adams for the Men’s 35 title.
For the first time there will be competition in the Novices category where 28 entrants will battle it out in best-of-three tie-break sets over the course of the next two weeks before the tournament concludes on June 26.
Matches in the Junior categories will be played from o8:00hrs while the senior competitors will serve the first ball at 17:00hrs each day.