Lewis downs Lawrence in straight sets

Haydn Lewis showed his seniority with a fantastic exhibition of stroke-play as he defeated last year’s runner Xavier Lawrence in round two of the Barbados Tennis Association Top 8 at the National Tennis Centre on Monday night.

Still classed as Barbados’ number two seed, Lewis got the best of fellow Davis Cup player Lawrence, 6-1, 6-4 in the best-of-three sets showdown.

Lewis started with a great opening serve which set the tempo for the match, before both players traded a series of hard-hitting forehand and backhand shots.   

However, Lewis went 4-1 up having produced some great serves which went unanswered by Lawrence, who then found himself needing to break back in order to gain a foothold in the opening set.

But despite looking his usual energetic self, Lawrence struggled with his ground shots at times, and eventually folded meekly to concede in the opening stanza.

Lewis mixed it up in the second set, producing an array of slices and backhand shots while Lawrence also changed his tactics a bit as well.

This seemed to work as Lawrence trailed Lewis, 3-2, to remain in touching distance but even though the set was more competitive than the first, Lawrence was unable to overtake Lewis who went ahead 5-4 before finishing off strongly.

In the other men’s game, defending champion Kaipo Marshall once again was forced to come from a set down before beating Russell Moseley 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Ryan Moseley was also victorious when he took down Kyle Griffith in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3.