… Kalekyezi cops the U-14

FOURTEEN-year-old Heimraj Resaul pulled off a significant win against 15-year-old Mark McDonald to grab his first Boys’ Under-18 title of the Bakewell Junior Open, currently underway at the GBTI lawn tennis courts.Last year it was McDonald who took the U-18 title after losing to Resaul in the U-14 division but this time the tables were turned.
Wednesday’s match started with both players playing safe tennis to the detriment of holding up their service games until Resaul held for the first time at 3-2 to go up 4-2.
At this time McDonald also held his serve and broke Resaul to even the set at 4. However, McDonald still played defensively and Resaul broke to go up 5-4 and then held serve to take the set at 6-4.
In the second set, McDonald seemed revitalised and anxious to turn the tide and he demonstrated this by holding his first service game to go up 1-0.
Resaul also upped his tempo and both players held serve until McDonald raced away to a 4-1 lead. Resaul then won 3 straight games to even at 4, with some great passing shots as McDonald became overconfident, frequently approaching the net.
McDonald then regrouped and both players again held their service games to take it to 6-6 and force the third set super tie-breaker. At the start of the third set on Thursday, both players showed a high level of confidence and the standard of play dictated trading points neck and neck until Resaul edged to 7-6 with a lot of fist pumps.
This clearly threw off McDonald who once again slipped into defensive mode and gave Resaul the next three points to prevail 6-4, 6-7(7-2), 10-6.
In the Boys’ Under-14, the Ugandan Joshua Kalekyezi was visibly elated as he defeated Viraj Sharma 5-3, 4-2 to take the coveted title. Both players had tough semi-finals but it was clear that Kalekyezi’s defeat of former champion Jordan Beaton in the semis boosted his confidence enough to hold off Sharma, who too has shown tremendous improvement in techniques over the last year.
The Boys’ Under-12 final between Jeremiah Kalekyezi and Vadeanand Resaul is scheduled for today at noon.