Defending men, women’s champs falter in Nagico Open Tennis

BY DEAN GREENAWAY

The upset bug hit both the men and women’s Nagico Open Tennis Tournament defending champions in the week long event that ended on Saturday, at the Tortola Sports Club in Pasea.

Musonda Poole used a series of volleys and drop shots that caused Carol Matthew to make unforced errors in her 6-3 and 6-1, upset victory. “I wasn’t surprised. I’m kind of a natural tennis player,” said Poole who also plays Squash. “I planned my strategy before the match and I executed it. She’s a baseline player like me, so I did a lot of drop shots, played to her backhand and that helped me a lot. This victory is special to me because I haven’t played for a long time,” Poole said. “I really relish it.”

Matthew said Poole was the better player on Saturday. “She played well,” Matthew said. “She beat me, but I will definitely be back and ready for her the next time.”

On the men’s side, Sheldon Walters overcame a 5-2 second set deficit for a 7-5 victory to close out the match, after beating defending champion Dion Anselm 6-2 in the opener. It was Walters’ second successive victory over Anselm.

“The first set went pretty much according to plan, but then in the second set when I was thinking about stepping it up, I made a few loose errors and I let it get to my mind and it distracted me from the match,” Walters explained. “I was down 2-5 and next thing you know, I was facing a third set. But, I just took it step by step and I pulled out the win.”

Walters, who got his focus back, said he began playing every point as if it was important and he couldn’t afford to make errors. “I stared constructing good points, got lucky on a couple other points and next thing you know I won the match and didn’t have to go three sets, he said.”

Anselm said it was a great match. “I started playing well and then I just lost focus and he came back and won,” said Anselm who also lost to Walters in the closed tournament in November. “Tennis is so much of a focus game and when you start well, you have stay on top of it. I’m not making any excuses, but, it’s all about focus and when you lose your focus, you lose your game,” he explained. “That is what happened to me. I had confidence in the second set and then I lost focus.”

Walters advanced to the finals after a 6-3 and 6-0 triumph over previously unbeaten Peter Griffins in the semis. He opened the competition with a walk over of Tony Bramble then ousted the tournament’s oldest player Ken Adamson, 6-1 and 6-0. Walters had an easy 6-0 and 6-0 win over Richard Reed, to get to the semis.

Although he said he wasn’t planning on entering the BVI Open, Walters will reconsider. “My best result there has been a runner’s up, so, I might try and do a little better this time,” he stated.

Rohan Amin needed three sets to beat Dean Fonseca, 4-6, 6-3 and 6-4 to win the junior crown.

Anselm, who is also tournament coordinator, was happy with how things went. “We saw some good games and saw some key players,” he said.