REIGNING senior national ladies’ squash champion Nicolette Fernandes began the defence of her title in Wednesday night’s opening of the Digicel National Seniors Squash Championships being held at the courts of the Georgetown Club.

Playing against Taylor Fernandes, Nicolette made quick work against her first victim as she took her out straight sets. The women’s world number 26 dealt Taylor an 11-1, 11-3, 11-4 trouncing as she breezed into the semifinals of the ladies’ singles, a Guyana Squash Association (GSA) press release said.
In the other ladies’ singles of the night former Caribbean Under-19 champ Kathy Ten-Pow was in a destructive mood as she defeated Larissa Wiltshire 11-4, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8.
Meanwhile the men’s division started off with five matches, where Ian and JoJo Mekdeci, Dennis Dias, Adam Alves and Brian Young were the first to advance out of the first round.
It was a 12-10, 11-8, 11-7 finish in Ian’s match against Jonathan Antczak, while JoJo worked very hard to take down Alec Melville 12-10, 7-11, 12-10, 11-7.
Veteran Dias overcame Haopei Yang 11-5, 11-3, 11-4, and Yong was victorious when he defeated Lee Fung-A-Fat 11-6, 11-8, 11-1. Matthew Phang gave a good account of himself but still went down to Adam Alves 6-11, 6-11, 7-11, the release said.
Matches in the tournament continued last evening where things were expected to heat up in the men’s division as defending men’s champion Alex Arjoon entered the scene.
The night was also expected to be embellished with matches involving Jason Ray Khalil, former national champion Reagan Pollard, and in an interesting twist, Nicolette will once again be playing in the men’s cateogry.
The underlining match of the night was expected to take place between two former national junior players, Deje Dias and Raphael De Groot.
Last night’s women’s matches were expected to see Ashley De Groot against Victoria Arjoon; Mary Fung-A-Fat against Akeila Wiltshire and Ashley Khalil versus Kathy Ten-Pow.
The national senior championships is a collaboration between the GSA and its number one corporate sponsor Digicel. (Tamica Garnett)