Apparently Darian King can beat pain too.
Not even a significant back injury could slow Barbados’ best as he overcame that painful setback and a gritty Russell Moseley en route to yesterday’s 6-1, 6-1 victory in the men’s open final of the Courtesy Garage Top 8 at the Ocean View courts.
It was simply yet another of a long line of fantastic feats from King, who bizarrely tweaked his back a day earlier but still managed to run through the second-seeded Moseley just minutes after also winning the doubles crown.
“I took like five Ibuprofen before I played just for this final because I didn’t want to disappoint anyone by forfeiting so just to come here and perform like this I am thrilled,” explained King in his post-match interview.
“But every time I turned to hit a backhand or go for my kick serves it hurt so the goal was to get a quick start, get in a lot of my first serves and go from there. I tried to get up early on his game so when it came to crunch time I would be ahead of him.”
Fortunately Moseley played right into that game plan, having hit regular miscues off his forehand to surrender the match’s first 12 points in King’s 5-0 start to the contest.
It also helped that King routinely found the mark on his first serves early on while finishing off points quickly with commanding forehand passing shots.
“It’s just so tough to play well against him because you find yourself trying to do too much too early, and then if you don’t you just find yourself trailing the rest of the way,” said Moseley.
The second seed did get on the board though, narrowly avoiding a first set “bagel” by following up a huge inside-out passing shot with an even bigger first serve to seal a rare hold.
Moseley almost even stole a break in the very next game after going ahead 15-30 with a touch drop shot, only to see King close out the set with a pinpoint backhand lob and a huge first serve.
And King then doubled down on that advantage by breaking his Davis Cup colleague twice to start the second set before his back clearly began to take its toll on backhands and shots he had to lunge for.
But the heavens opened up thereafter like a clear blessing, giving King a much-needed 11-minute break which he followed up with two more games before Moseley managed an unlikely break to avoid yet another “bagel”.
Earlier, King paired with Davis Cup teammate Seanon Williams to beat Hornby brothers Richard and Adam 6-4, 7-6 (4) to win the men’s open doubles title. King is slated to return today to play Williams in the final of the CIBC FirstCaribbean Championships.
