DARIAN KING is home for the holidays.
He just wasn’t in a gift-giving mood.
Local tennis’ No.1 thrashed 15-year-old junior Gavin Hutchinson 6-0, 6-0 in yesterday’s first round men’s open action of the FirstCaribbean Tennis Championships at the Ocean View courts.
It was King’s first match on home soil since returning from a successful season overseas where the 20-year-old pro copped two singles titles and eight doubles championships.
The wide-eyed Hutchinson mustered just 13 points all game, managing just two in the second set while King hustled to get the match completed ahead of the looming showers.
At one stage, King rattled off 20 straight points, spanning the end of the first set and midway through the second while producing service winners at will and similarly effortless passing shots.
So good was King that he whistled a second ace up the tee against an unmoved Hutchinson before coming up with a forehand cross court winner from his shoelace on the very next point.
Hutchinson did have his moments, though few and far between, once setting up a crushing forehand pass off a delightful inside-out groundstroke after passing King down the line with a pristine backhand.
But the junior too often struggled to negotiate King’s first serves and the kick ones as well, and produced too many errors to prove a real threat in any game.
The result set up a quarter-final clash against fellow pro and Davis Cup teammate Seanon Williams, who dismissed Christian Maxwell 6-2, 6-0 in another lopsided first-round encounter.
Third seed Ryan Moseley also advanced to the quarters by overcoming a spirited performance by youngster Andrew Symmonds, 6-2, 7-5.
In the Boys’ 16s category, top-seeded Simon Lewis progressed safely to the next round following a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Xavier Lawrence.
