[dropcap]M[/dropcap]axx William and Jean Philippe Murray both advanced to the men’s singles finals of the Voyager Open Tennis Tournament presented by Go! Insect Repellent. The competition is taking place at the Kenneth “Wriggler” King Multi-Purpose Sports Complex. Murray advanced to the finals following a superb semifinal match victory Wednesday night against his nemesis Akeem Gustave. It was a grueling two setter with both players slicing, dicing and bombarding each other with an array of impressive shots, particularly in the first set which went to a tie break. Murray ending up winning the first set 7-6 (4).
It was more of the same in the second set, however, Murray the younger of the two prevailed 6-3. The two players have a history, having played each other in a previous tournament in a match that lasted over three hours. Revenge may have been a motivating factor for young Murray. With the semifinal victory, he advanced to Thursday’s final against Maxx William who earlier in the evening won his semifinal match against Zy Richards 6-2, 7-5.
In other matches played Wednesday, in the women’s open Aviona Edmund went up against Iyana Paul and won the first set convincingly 6-0. She led 3-1 in the second set and won the match after her opponent retired. It should be pointed out that Paul who also played in the under 14 division came away with that title. She is also playing in the women’s 18’s, women’s open and women’s doubles.
Netanya Faissal won her match against Jace Leon 7-5, 6-0 and Iesha Emile had no trouble at all getting past Catherine Morille 6-0, 6-0. In men’s double play in a hard fought three setter, St Catherine/Marcus emerged victorious over Mahtani/Habib 7-6 (7), 2-6, 7-5. Commenting on the competition,Tournament Organizer, Sirsean Arlain said: “Things have gone very well this week. Of course we had some weather issues on the weekend that pushed us back a bit.”
It has been somewhat of a scheduling nightmare for the organizer, due to the fact some players are competing in multi age groups which he admitted “presents a challenge.” Nevertheless he has been able to work his magic and with some clever maneuvering has been able to work things out. Arlain mentioned that normally the men’s final would take place on Saturday prior to the prize giving ceremony. However, Murray who studies in the United States has to be back at a certain time and as result the match was played Thursday afternoon. Commenting on the men’s semifinal match between Murray and Gustave, Arlain was not surprised by what transpired on the court. “They are both counter punches, what you are seeing tonight is expected” he said. “Two guys who are not going to make too many errors grinding it out, so I expected the match to be a long one. They played a few years back. Jean Philippe was probably 16 or so and that was a three and a half hour marathon in which Gustave came out on the top in the third set 7-5. Arlain is grateful to the tournament sponsor Voyager Go! Insect Repellent for making the tournament possible and thanked the number of players who turned out this year.
