Marshall battles to the final eight

Kaipo Marshall secured his place in the quarterfinals of the 2020 Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited Open and Senior Nationals where he will face fellow national player Haydn Lewis likely this Friday.

During his round two encounter played yesterday afternoon at the Barbados Tennis Association in Wildey, the number two seed Marshall stayed focused to bag a 6-2, 7-6 (3) win against Adam King on court one.

In the opening set, Marshall started off well and had the breakpoint opportunity to go up 3-0 but missed it. King managed to trail 3-2 but Marshall with a bit more experience between the two held on to take the opening set.

King served first in the second set and went up 1-0 but Marshall wasted no time equalising 1-1 as they both kept holding serve. So competitive was the exchange in the two best of three sets clash that the scores were locked 6-6 and forced a tie-break situation.

Marshall then raised his level with some wonderful top serves and forehand smashes that were well executed particularly in the front court.

Young 14-year-old King who is the reigning Under-16 junior national champion tried his best to keep up with Marshall’s game and even responded at times with a couple well placed shots down the line. But Marshall did well to stave off King’s resilience.

Speaking after the match, Marshall said: “I don’t feel too badly about it although some people would say I should have won a bit more convincingly. I think sometimes it is harder to win the matches you are supposed to win, so I am pretty happy that I fought through it. I stayed positive and never really got down on myself.”

There were other men’s singles that were played and Stephen Slocombe earned a great 6-2, 6-2 victory when he took on Xavier Peter-Gooding.

Also in men’s singles, Simon Lewis was dominant 6-0, 6-4 against Alex Stewart. Kodi Lewis (not related) defeated Kenton Gamble 6-3, 6-4 in the other singles match.

In the ladies match-up, the number one seed Hannah Chambers was too strong of a contender – smashing an impressive 6-0, 6-0 victory over Rosie Roach.

Similarly, Serena Bryan recorded a bagel as she did not drop a single point (6-0, 6-0) against Shonte Sargeant. Also, Gabrielle Leslie had two golden sets 6-0, 6-0 when she took on Asha King.

Meanwhile, Taisha Jones registered a  6-1, 6-4 win against Laurenne Mottley. In men’s doubles, Curt Seifert and Kyle Griffith were triumphant 6-4, 6-2 when they met Lloyd Slocombe and Craig Smith.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb