GBTI IJO 2016 Open: Gentle trumps her coach in semifinals

Jun 19, 2016 Sports

Afruica Gentle got her heart’s desire when she clashed with her lifetime coach Shelly Daly, in the Ladies Open Singles semis. In an invited post-match comment, the young player recounted looking up to her coach and role model

Afruica Gentle (left) and Coach Shelly Daly

with the hope of being able to play tennis like her. The match kicked off with Gentle looking very focused and breaking Daly’s service game to lead 1-0. Gentle then held her service twice and broke Daly once again to go up 4-0 with heavy grunting to accompany her powerful ground strokes.

Serving at 0-4, Daly held serve to win her first game of the match. Shockwaves were sent to Gentle as Daly secured yet another game by breaking Gentle’s service game at 2-4. Consistency and experience aided Daly to win 2 more games to equalize at 4-4. Determined to maintain her dominance, Gentle held serve to go up 5-4 after which Daly held serve to even the games at 5-5. Daly then settled into tactical play to break Gentle and hold to capture the set at 7-5.
With the first game of the second set lasting some twenty minutes, Gentle broke Daly’s serve and held serve to go up 2-0. Unaffected by this play, Daly sought to even the games by holding her serve to bring score to 1-2. Gentle and Daly traded service holds as Gentle rose to 3-1, with Daly holding at 1-3 to bring games to 2-3. The gears of the match shifted as Gentle’s power and resilience rewarded her by winning a three game haul to clinch the set at 6-3.
Daly was clearly exhausted at the start of the third set which gave Gentle an opportunity to easily dominate the third set winning at 6-0. Afruica Gentle overall winning score of 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 throws her into the finals against Nicola Ramdyhan the daughter of Coach Daly, a must-see rematch of last year’s final.
Overall results are as follows:
Men’s Open Doubles Quarterfinals: A. Downes/H. Panday def D. Lopes/N. Glasgow 7-6, 6-7, 6-4
Men’s Over 35 Singles Finals: Leyland Leacock def Godfrey Lowden 6-1, 6-0
Ladies Open Doubles Semifinals: N. Ramdyhan/A. Dey def K. Fraser/C. Pooran, Ladies Open Singles Semifinals: Afruica Gentle def Shelly Daly 5-7, 6-2, 6-0

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