This time the big showdown was outdone by one epic collapse.
Give Seanon Williams bragging rights for now in tennis’ best rivalry after Russell Moseley squandered a one-set lead by dropping nine straight games in a stunning 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 semi-final meltdown in the men’s open of the CIBC FirstCaribbean Championships at the Ocean View courts.
It was a rather disappointing outcome of a much awaited all-Davis Cup encounter pitting the sport’s best locally based players who routinely feature in epic head-to-head matchups.
And this latest edition had all the makings of yet another marathon finish as just one break separated the two hard-punching foes in the first set before they traded service games to open the second.
But Moseley completely fell apart thereafter, with Williams subsequently holding at love to start a string in which he won the next nine games and 11 of the last 13 overall.
It wasn’t just that Moseley began to spray his favoured forehand all over the place either, as the second seed came apart, throwing down his racquet in frustration and even hitting his hat over the fence.
At one point he couldn’t even locate the court with his forehand having already dumped two sitters for volleys right in the middle of the net.
All the while Williams never let the events on the other side of the net become distractions while zinging inside-out forehand passing shots among some other heavy topspin groundstrokes from the baseline.
Moseley did gather himself enough to hit some lusty winners thereafter, only to see Williams rip a couple of his own – none better than a forehand down the line that left Moseley standing still.
Even when Moseley had his rival running end to end, the athletic Williams simply chased down everything before eventually turning those defensive slices into unlikely passing shots.
Moseley still looked likely to turn it around after losing the second set 6-1, though, coming up with a volley winner and a big crosscourt pass to set up game point on his serve to start the second set.
However, Williams simply answered with a forehand pass before Moseley handed him the game via two successive unforced errors off his forehand.
The second seed even tried to mix it up by stepping into the court to take the returns early, but happened upon three booming serves, including a heavy second serve winner that closed out the game.
The writing was then on the wall in Moseley’s ensuing service game, where he followed a double-fault with yet another muffed forehand to surrender the second break of the set and a quick 3-0 lead.
Williams quickly consolidated again before easily serving out the match at love just a couple games later.
The third-seeded Williams is set to face top-ranked pro Darian King in today’s final at 4 p.m. after he was scheduled to play Moseley again last night in the semi-final of the Courtesy Garage Top Eight.