THE women stole the show on Saturday at the GBTI Open as Berbician Carol Humphrey first ousted defending champion Aruna Ramrattan in straight sets, while Shawna Gentle edged Krystal Sukra in what was the best match of the tournament so far in the other Ladies semi-final match. In the first semi-final, veteran Humphrey exacted some revenge for last year’s loss to Ramrattan as she won in straight sets 6-1 6-4. An out of sorts Ramrattan could not find a way to compete with Humphrey in the first set as the veteran came out firing with a 5-0 lead before closing it off 6-1 .
Ramrattan showed some fight in the second set as she cut down on the errors and prolonged points against the tiring Humphrey, but Humphrey always stayed a step ahead and pulled off the win to book her place in the Finals.
The second semi-final match saw a slugfest between the number one seed Shawna Gentle and fellow junior Krystal Sukra as they put on a high quality performance with Sukra in particular hitting a lot of forehand winners as she took the first set 6-4.
Gentle forced a deciding set when she fought back from 3-1 to take the second set 6-4.
In the final set it was all about who wanted it more as both players gave it their all as they repeatedly went for broke on their ground strokes with the occasional approach to net. In the end Gentle was able to secure the critical break to go ahead 5-3 and despite saving 4 match points, Sukra was not able to recover and lost 6-3.
The pair will meet again in the Girl’s Under 18 finals while Gentle will take on Humphrey in the Ladies finals.
In the Men’s 45 Doubles, Omar Persaud/Godfrey Lowden booked their place in the finals against Carlos Adams/Wayne Alphonso when they defeated the Russian pair of Victor Devchanko/V Permyakov 6-2 6-2 in an entertaining match. Then Leyland Leacock/Barckoy/Gilbert advanced to the Men’s Double finals with an easy 6-2 6-0 win over Benedict Sukra/Khalif Gobin.
In the Novice category Seweon McGarrell posted wins over Celeste Bradford and Vini Aaron to book a place in the finals on Sunday where he will take on Russian Victor Devchanko who defeated David Dewar 6-3.