Local favourite Trey Mallory suffered an agonising three-set defeat on day two of the ITF M15 tournament at the WER Joell Tennis Stadium, ending Bermudian interest in the singles draw.
With tournament organisers working through an extensive fixture backlog following opening-day rain, the home crowd turned out in force to get behind Mallory as he took on American Carel Ngounoue.
The Bermudian could scarcely have scripted a better start. Dictating play from the baseline and striking the ball cleanly, Mallory swept through the opening set 6-1 in commanding fashion.
However, Ngounoue regrouped in the second, finding his range and tightening his error count to claim a decisive break and take the set 6-3.
The deciding set proved a gripping, attritional contest, with both players trading heavy groundstrokes. It was the American who held his nerve in the pivotal moments, snatching a late break of serve to seal a hard-fought 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory and quieten the Pembroke crowd.
Barbadian veteran Darian King produced the most ruthless display of the day on the Pembroke courts. King dismantled Canada’s Volodymyr Gurenko with a clinical 6-1, 6-0 demolition, advancing to the second round in under an hour.
It was far tighter for King's compatriot, wildcard Kaipo Marshall, who was pushed to the wire in an entertaining three-set tussle against Poland’s Kacper Szymkowiak.
After Szymkowiak claimed the opening set 6-2, Marshall dug deep to take a pulsating second 7-5. However, the Polish challenger regained control in the decider, breaking late to close out a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 triumph.
In other singles action, American Matt Kuhar staged an impressive comeback to overcome Jamaican challenger John Chin.
Chin drew first blood by taking a competitive opening set 6-4, but Kuhar seized complete control from that point onward, surrendering just two games across the remainder of the tie to record an emphatic 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 win.
In an all-American clash between qualifier Kian Vakili and Gray Voelzke, it was Vakili who held his composure in the high-pressure moments, edging a tight encounter 7-5, 7-6.
There was redemption for Marshall later in the day as he partnered Stephen Slocombe to victory in a dramatic first-round doubles encounter that had been suspended by rain on Tuesday.
Resuming at a set up, the Barbadian duo were pegged back as Canadian fourth seeds Volodymyr Gurenko and Niels Peter Van Noord snatched the second set on a tie-break.
Marshall and Slocombe held their nerve in the deciding match tie-break, prevailing 6-4, 6-7, [10-5] to book their spot in the quarter-finals.
|
