Once just wasn’t enough for local tennis’ best junior player.
The Island Heritage National Under-18 crown is still in Ajani King’s hands after the gritty 16-year-old survived a break in his very first service game before beating Gavin Hutchinson 7-6 (3), 6-3 in yesterday’s final at the Wildey Tennis Centre.
It was the second national singles title in as many years for King, who rose to prominence a year ago after capturing the championships’ top junior crown as a 15-year-old.
And to prove it was no fluke, King was at it again, rattling off four of the last five games.
This was after Hutchinson easily broke King in just the second game of the match as part of a quick 3-0 start to the championship contest.
But King bounced back by breaking Hutchinson twice for a 5-4 lead after very nearly losing yet another service game when he was facing three straight break points while still trailing 3-2.
However, he never was able to close out the set on his serve on two different occasions, having double-faulted to give Hutchinson back the break before squandering the opportunity again on some missed forehands while leading 6-5.
Hutchinson wasn’t much better in the ensuing tiebreak after starting with a double-fault of his own before dumping routine groundstrokes in the net.
King won the first four points, and five of the initial six until Hutchinson sprayed an easy backhand volley wide to hand him the tiebreak at three in a first set that lasted some 90 minutes.
“The wind was just a little strong and to be able to play in the wind you have to use more feet, but I don’t think I was using as much feet as I could,” said King of his early woes.
“It was tough because I started off very slowly but in the end I found a way to regain my fitness. I still don’t think I was feeling the ball too well.”
He looked certain to take over the match to start the second set, though, firing a couple of big serves for an easy hold and then breaking Hutchinson to take a swift 2-0 advantage.
But just as he did towards the end of the first, King just couldn’t consolidate that early break, having given it right back on the very next service game after registering three straight double faults.
Not to be outdone, Hutchinson went one better by firing four double faults in succession to hand over his serve at love with King not having to play a single stroke.
It basically signalled the end of the contest as King also won his next service game without dropping a point before returning to close out the match on his serve.
