Nurse upsets Grazette

Teenaged sensation Raheem Nurse continued his impressive run in the Hope For the Ghetto ‘B’ Class road tennis tournament when it continued at Belfield on Tuesday night.

Fresh from his victory on Saturday over Paul Griffith, the 15-year-old Nurse returned to shock Matthew Grazette in straight sets, 21-16, 21-15.

With the victory, Nurse, the younger brother of the highly touted Shakeem Nurse, booked his spot in the round of 32.

In the battles of the southpaws, Suave Clarke overcame Darius Brathwaite in straight sets 21-14, 21-14.

The games were more competitive than the scoreline indicated, with the teenaged Clarke seizing the upper hand at the death following close starts in both games as the two lefties traded shots.

Jason ‘Pipey’ Parris, one of the pretournament favourites, wasted little time in cooking Anderson ‘Chef Andy’ Smith, also in straight sets 21-15, 21-13.

Both Dale Johnson and Ashton Blackett qualified for the next round with straight sets victories over Fabian Batson and Shawn Browne respectively.

Johnson won 21-14, 21-12, while Blackett handed Browne a sow in a 21-8, 21-18 thrashing.

In one of the few matches to go the distance, Edwin ‘Dark Man’ Ward persevered over a tiring Justin Bennett 21-17, 16-21, 21-16.

Bennett, playing in his first major competition, actually led in the opening set (13-12) before Ward took control of the contest.

Using his forehand to good effect, Ward forced Bennett into committing several unforced errors as he moved him around the court.

However, Bennett rebounded to dominate the second, pleasing the crowd with several powerful forehand smashes and injections from his backhand that brought the crowd to its feet.

He opened up a five-point lead (15-10) before cruising to victory to force a decider.

In the final game, an obviously exhausted Bennett did well to lock the scores right up to 9-9, before Ward won the next point, at which point the players exchanged sides.

Realizing his opponent’s physical state, Ward switched to a more defensive style which encouraged Bennett to play some attacking shots.

That plan worked perfectly in Ward’s favour, as that one-point lead quickly ballooned into a 20-10 score due to several unforced errors by a fatigued Bennett.

He did put up a fight though, winning six successive points to make the contest interesting, before he sent a backhand long to give Ward the game and the match.

(RB)