Barbados Road Tennis Cup reaches semi-finals

By Morissa Lindsay 

 

National men’s champion Mark ‘Venom’ Griffith is into the semifinals of the 2022 Barbados Road Tennis Cup hosted by the Professional Road Tennis Association slated for Friday, December 16th at the Netball Stadium in Waterford, St. Michael.  

Griffith, fresh from winning BDS$20, 000 in the Barbados Road Tennis Open competition is going to be the man to beat as he aims to secure BDS$10, 000 in this high stakes, invitation only, Cup tournament where only the top eight players (men and women) are competing.

Two top players, Julian “Michael Jackson” White and Antoine ‘Lil Man’ Daniel both withdrew from the competition for personal reasons, but there are still lots of talented and quality players that will give spectators a show.

For instance, the highly rated Griffith won 21-15 and 21-15 last night against Davien “Force Ripe” Taylor in the two best of three set showdown as the national top seed withstood the firm attacking plays from Taylor.

Clearly not a pushover, Taylor who defeated the experienced “Michael Jackson” White on Monday in the opening night of competition brought that same energy against a focused and versatile Griffith who is at the pinnacle of his road tennis career.

However, Taylor did not let that stop him and in the second set came from behind to lock the scores 8-8 and moved ahead 10-8 as he forced Griffith on the defense and of course the latter responded by equalising 10-10 and subsequently regained the lead 12-10 in a keenly contested battle of hard hitting smashes and stroke plays.

At times Taylor played a bit too aggressively on his returns and sent many of them out of bounds which made life easy for tournament favourite Griffith who went on to capture the win with his father Mark Griffith Senior, as always, by his side.

It should be a good clash when Griffith takes on Dario ‘CR7 Ric Flair’ Hinds in one of two men’s semi-finals. The other semi will feature the talented Shakeem Nurse who was runner-up to Griffith in the Barbados Road Tennis Open against the hard hitting Taylor.

The women’s semifinals has also been decided and it will not feature Kim Holder after she lost her match 21-8 and 21-19 last night to Sheldene Walrond. It was no doubt a relief for Walrond to get the win over Holder who defeated her in the finals of the Barbados Road Tennis Open, earlier this year.

As expected the match was competitive between these two women and after handing Holder a ‘sow’ in the first set, Walrond made a good 7-3 start to the second stanza as she unleashed wonderfully executed forehand smashes. Holder struggled to get her returns on and Walrond used that to her advantage.

Those cross court forehand shots by Walrond were beautiful to watch as she made Holder work by moving around on the baseline.

Holder won five straight points to come from behind and lead 18-17 as the battle between the top two female players in this country intensified. The match had a bit of controversy especially when Walrond made an appeal to chair umpire Christopher Griffith after she served the ball but Holder seemingly was not ready to receive. On seeking further council on the matter, umpire Griffith awarded the point to Walrond who took the lead 19-18 based on the rules.

Of course, the spectators debated the decision as the match continued and in the end it was Walrond who went on to win 21-19 over Holder.

Therefore, Walrond will play Maudlyn Blunt and the stylish Abigail Haynes against Rachel Smith in the women’s semi-finals. 

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb