Matthew?Weir?became the first seed to crash out of the open men’s singles of the Barbados National Tennis Championships.
On Friday night at the National Tennis Centre, Weir fell in straight sets to unseeded Damian Applewhaite. A tennis coach and former Davis Cup player for Barbados, Applewhaite moved on with the 6-3, 6-0 victory.
His opponent in the quarter-finals will be No. 3 seed Simon Lewis who beat Mark Hinkson 6-0, 6-2.
No. 1 seed Russell Moseley advanced to the quarters, easily beating Boys’ Under-18 champion Ajani King 6-2, 6-0. Moseley will be up against seventh-seeded Devard Wharton who beat Aquille Trotman 6-3, 6-0.
In the bottom half of the draw, sixth seeded Matthew Estwick is the first to the quarter-finals. His opponent Andrew Symmonds retired trailing by one game in the second set after losing the first 6-4.
In the lone first-round match to be played, Adrian Catlyn beat Christopher Maxwell 6-4, 6-4.
Yesterday afternoon, Hannah Chambers claimed her second title in the Island Heritage Junior Championships. Chambers beat Tangia Riley-Codrington 9-7 to win the Girls’ Under-12 round robin. She is also the Under-10 champion.
It was a clash of unbeaten players. Chambers had already beaten Amelia Dickson 8-3, Gabrielle Leslie 8-5 and eased past Alesha Alleyne 8-2. Riley-Codrington beat Leslie 8-1, Alleyne 8-5 and Dickson 8-2.
The matches in that division were delayed as both Riley-Codrington and Leslie recently returned from Jamaica, where, along with Romani Mayers and Jordan Every, they competed in the International Tennis Federation 12 and Under Development Tournament.
Barbados finished fifth among both the boys and girls, winning the consolation finals.
Coach Julian Baird told SUNSPORT he thought the team performed well, especially since they had never left the island to compete in a tennis tournament.
The Bahamas won both the boys’ and girls’ titles, Jamaica were runners-up in both and Bermuda snapped up both third places. The other participating countries were St Lucia, Guyana and Suriname, who only fielded a boys’ team. (SAT)
