DEFENDING men’s singles champion Anthony Downes and Godfrey Lowden collected the final two titles in the GBTI Open tennis last Saturday as the competition came to a close at the courts of the GBTI Recreational Centre.

Out-mastering Leyland Leacock 6-4, 7-5, Downes captured his third consecutive GBTI Open men’s singles title, while Lowden ruled over in the men’s 35 singles where he took out an out-of-sorts Carlos Adams 6-4, 6-1.

Playing under the lights after a late start, Leacock got off to a bright start as he quickly jumped out to an early 15-40 lead on Downes’ serve, that was quickly eroded as Downes powered his way to save the two break points with his crafty serve and volley game.
Leacock was made to work for his subsequent service game, as Downes blasted his returns, coupled with some double faults.

With Downes cranking up the power on his serves, Leacock seemed to be content with just blocking the first service returns over the net and hammering the second serves.

The game took a twist, when Leacock found a way to break serve to jump ahead 4-2, but those were the only games for the second seed as Downes increased the pressure on Leacock, imploring the slice back to keep the ball lower, volleys and occasional cross court winner to wrestle off the next four service games to close out the set 6-4.

At the end of that set, Leacock flung his racquet to the ground in disgust at losing all the break point opportunities.

A frustrated Leacock dropped his serve to open the second set, as the double faults and unforced errors began to creep in and the stronger Downes was now well on his way to a straight-set victory.

On the other side of the net, a relaxed Downes looked too casual, as he began chatting with the lines judges to lose his concentration along with his service game deep into set, as the momentum swung but he quickly regained his composure to regain the one game, break lead and close out the set and take the game with it 7-5.

In the Lowden and Adams showdown the two played ping-pong style tennis with a great number of slices. The match was not one for the younger generation who love to watch the faster moving tennis. This was a crafty well strategised match with both players bringinf their own game plan.

It was, Lowden who executed all his plans well, as he had Adams moving from side to side

On Friday, Shelly Ramdyhan and Leyland Leacock defeated Nicola Ramdyhan and Gavin Lewis 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 to claim the mixed doubles title.

Winners of the tournament are expected to be presented with their prizes at the closing ceremony which is still to be scheduled.