DAVID Lopes advanced to the final of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry’s (GBTI) Open Tennis tournament with a convincing win against Benjattan Osbourne, while Godfrey Lowden, campaigning in the over 45 years category, made light work of his opposition in both the singles and doubles categories Lopes’ semi-final match last Wednesday against Osbourne was a one-sided and ill-tempered affair as Lopes was simply too dominant. Playing some of his best tennis,he cut down on unforced errors significantly and kept the potential challenge of Osborne at bay as he skillfully kept his opponent off-balanced and unable to launch an attack by moving the ball around the court.
A visibly perturbed and frustrated Osborne repeatedly questioned line calls and was only able to save a 6-0 loss in the second set when he dug deep and won a game to lose 5-1 before Lopes served out the set.
Lowden on the other hand, campaigning in the Over 45 years category, proved to be good in his matches as he registered comprehensive wins in his singles and doubles games.
In his semi-final match against Rudy Grant, his fast paced style allowed him to put away Grant 6-3, 6-1, after Grant was able to mount an early challenge.
The old rivalry has been more one-sided to Lowden in recent years as Grant now plays sparingly and is not so active.
In the Men’s Over- 45 Doubles action, Lowden partnered with Omar Persaud and encountered stiff resistance from American, Albert Razick and Steve Surujbally who took the first set 7-6 in the tiebreak before the match changed and they won only one more game before the team retired, facing a 4-0 deficit in the final set. Final scores in the match were 6-7 6-1 4-0 (retired).
Other entertaining matches were when an injured Heimraj Resaul was able to hold off the challenge of talented but inconsistent junior, Khalid Gobin 6-2, 7-6 in the Boys quarter finals as the pair played excellent tennis. Resaul had to subsequently forfeit his remaining matches which allowed Joshua Kalekyezi, who first defeated Nigel Lowe 6-1, 6-0 and unexpectedly upended top ranked Mark McDonald in three sets 6-3, 5-7, 10-7, to book his first GBTI Boys Final against Jordan Beaton.
In the Men’s Open Doubles semis, the new pairing of Mark McDonald and Andre Erskine gave top seeds Anthony Downes/Jason Andrews a challenge as they took the second set 6-3 before going down in three sets as the top seeds restored order with a 6-2 final set, after having a similarly dominant 6-1 first set. Leyland Leacock/Daniel Lopes also easily defeated Nicholas Glasgow/Joseph DeJonge 6-2, 6-1 to book their place in the semis.
A keenly contested Ladies Singles match was cut short when Cristy Campbell could not overcome progressive muscular cramps and retired in the third set against Kalyca Fraser, to lose 3-6, 6-3, 1-0.
The Mixed Doubles quarter final action saw Ciara Pooran/Nicholas Glasgow defeating the pair of GLTA executives, Grace McCalman/Jamal Goodluck 6-3 , 6-1 but the two subsequently gave Daniel Lopes/Sarah Klautky a w/o in the semis to reach the Finals.