Bermuda Tennis Team Win In Santo Domingo
Bermuda tasted victory in their Final Preliminary Round Robin match on Day Three of the 2014 JDC and JFC Tennis Tournament in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Bermuda won all three matches against Jamaica and finished 3rd in the Boys 16 Group C Division.
The first match saw Tanner Boyle go up against Daniel Hill, Boyle had a much better day playing very steady and consistently applying pressure to the Jamaican.
Bermuda coach Jerome Bradshaw said, “The main difference was simply adding more spin to his favorite forehand drives, this allowed him move the ball around and pull his opponent out of position and then finish the point of with a winner or nonreturnable. Still Boyle had to keep his focus and be patient by playing a few more strokes per point than normal.” Boyle won in straight sets 6 – 1, 6 – 1.
In the second singles match Nicholas Lines had to work very hard against a calm Kyle Martin. This was a long match going the distance of 3 sets. Lines was ahead in the first set and looked set to take charge of the match. His opponent had a good first serve that continually surprised Lines resulting in aces to the ad court. Martin’s second serve was however somewhat of a liability.
Not needing too many second serves the Jamaican turned things around and surprisingly took the first set 6 – 4. Now the match was really on and Lines had to find a way back. Martins first serve fell off and Lines found some energy to retrieve many of Kyle’s well placed forehand drives. Lines won the second set 6 – 0. In the third and final set both players played well.
The games reached 3 all before the Jamaican got a crucial break against Lines in the 7th game. Martin followed this up holding his own serve for a 5 – 3 lead. Lines now had to hold his own serve, or it was all over for him, Lines held and now Martin was to serve for the match at 5 – 4.
Martin appeared confident but he still had to execute. Lines with some fine angled shots and a lot of hustle surprised the Jamaican with a service break to pull even at 5 games all. Lines now had to avoid his opponents potent forehand in particular with his serve, having had many of his second serves returned for winners.
Lines did this well enough to hold serve again and finally go ahead in this final set 6 – 5. The pressure has now shifted to the Jamaican who did his best to deliver the first serves he was able to make in the first set. It was not to be, that well was dry. Lines was able to return freely against second serves. The pressure was just too much for the Jamaican as Lines was victorious winning the match 4 – 6, 6 – 0, 7 – 5.
In the final match of doubles the pressure to win the tie was off but players still wanted to win. Lines and Boyle played against Hill and Cliff Dwyer. The first set was a comfortable 6 – 2 win for Bermuda. With fading light all were anxious to complete the match at least from the Bermuda standpoint. Jamaica had other ideas as they stayed with Bermuda game for game. At 3 games all in the second the match had to be moved to a flood lit court.
The match continued on Stadium court and actually restarted before the lighting was at full power. The Jamaican’s seemed to play with renewed enthusiasm, perhaps they were energized by the lighting. There was an exchange of service breaks and then came a second set tiebreak. It was both win or go home for Bermuda or Jamaica would force a deciding set. Jamaica took an early lead, but relinquished it a couple of points later as Bermuda took advantage of this and claimed the Tie Breaker 7 – 4.
