AS ACTION in this year’s Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI)-sponsored Guyana Lawn Tennis Association (GTA)-sponsored Open Tennis tournament intensifies, the pairing of Leyland Leacock and Aruna Ramrattan had to battle for three sets to overcome Gavin Lewis and Shawna Gentle in the Mixed Doubles category last Sunday evening. The victorious Leacock and Ramrattan played the better tennis with some excellent teamwork to take the first set 6-3, before Lewis and Gentle took the lead 5-3 in the second set which they nearly squandered when Lewis was broken at love.
The game was even at 5, as Leacock held serve and it eventually reached the tie-break. Lewis and Gentle regrouped to force a deciding set.
Leacock’s serve, coupled with effective groundstrokes and volleying by Ramrattan, turned back some spirited play by Gentle who volleyed well throughout the game and they took the final set 6-3 to advance.
Junior pair Khalif Gobin and Benedict Sukra put in an impressive showing in their Men’s Double match where they put away Ronald Murray and Rawle Sue-Ho in straight sets to book a place in the semi-finals.
They will await the winner of today’s match where Godfrey Lowden and Sandeep Chand will play second seed Leyland Leacock and Gilbert Barckoy while Anthony Downes and Andre Lopes are heading for an early showdown with top seeds Jeremy Miller and Jason Andrews in the top half of today’s draw.
Top seed in the Men’s category Jeremy Miller will start his campaign against the winner of the Seanden David Longe versus Grantley Crandon matchup, while Downes will face promising junior Khalif Gobin in his first match.
For tomorrow’s action, there will be the an eagerly anticipated Mixed Doubles matchup which will see the return of former top female player Rebecca Mitchell to competition, as she teams up with Downes to take on the top seeds in Miller and Shelly Ramdyhan in a matchup that is fit to be called a final.
Men’s 35 Singles Andre Lopes defeated Harry Panday 6-1, 6-2 and Mohamed Rafeek stopped Alfred Mentore 6-3, 5-7, 7-6.
Men’s Doubles Khalif Gobin and Benedict Sukra stopped Ronald Murray and Rawle Sue-Ho  6-1,  6-4, while Leyland Leacock and Aruna Ramrattan pulled out all the stops to defeat Gavin Lewis and Shawna Gentle 6-3, 6-7 (8-6) and 6-3
Men’s 45 Singles Harry Panday defeated Rawle Sue-Ho  6-0, 6-0 and Victor Dechanko upset Albert Madramootoo 6-2, 6-1 and in the Men’s  Over-45 Doubles, Carlos Adams and Wayne Alphonso defeated Steve David Longe and Madramootoo 6-3, 6-0 while in the Men’s Doubles Kester Abrams and Bishan Dalip stopped S. McGarrell and Grantley Crandon 6-1, 6-0.
Two matches were played in the Novices category, in which Victor Demchenko and David Dewar defeated Anthony Sookram and Irzad Zamal by 6-2 margins respectively.