France’s Marthe-Eugene Sime was crowned Under-14 girls champion at the 2012 Barbados International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Tennis Tournament yesterday.
Playing on court four at the National Tennis Centre, Sime easily defeated Antiguan, D’Jeri Raymond, in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to claim the title, picking up some valuable ITF points in the process.
It will be a game that 13-year-old Raymond will want to quickly forget, one in which she committed several unforced errors, having failed to cope with the looping topspin game of her opponent.
The shorter Antiguan, much more comfortable in the faster paced game, looked in disarray as Sime easily took the first set in just over half an hour.
Sime frustrated Raymond by taking her out of her usual solid game of powerful ground strokes, by continually forcing her opponent to play shots from way behind the baseline.
On several occasions, Raymond was forced to play her shots while against the fence, due to the Sime’s topspin.
And using the same strategy, she quickly jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, as Raymond’s evident frustration resulted in several unforced errors, allowing the French player to break her twice on the way to assuming a commanding lead.
Raymond wasn’t about to call it quits though, and a spirited performance saw her win the next game, before squandering three easy chances to claw her way back into the match.
Having held advantage in the ensuing set, she missed two easy volleys with Sime scrambling to recover, before placing what looked like a sure winner into the net.
It allowed her opponent to win the next two points, before closing out the match in the very next game when Raymond sent an attempted lob long.
