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Men’s final GBTI Open Lewis is new Men’s Singles Champion, Gentle takes women’s title
By Sean Devers
Sunday night was an auspicious one for the talented 22-year-old former Junior Champion Gavin Lewis, when at the Guyana Bank for Trade & Industry (GBTI) Lawn Tennis Court in Bel Air, he beat 24-year-old Frenchman Gregoire Vincent in the tenth GBTI Open Men’s Singles Final.
Afruica Gentle beat Cristy Campbell to become the new Women’s Open Singles Champion.
Under lights, in strong breeze and with a fair size gathering which included former Caribbean Squash Queen Nicolette Fernandes, urging the pair on, Lewis won the first set, lost the second and won the third to spark celebrations for the clear crowd favourite.
The highly talented Lewis, who lived for a while in the USA while on Scholarship to study and play Tennis, had caused the upset of the tournament when he dethroned seven times defending Champion Anthony Downes during his march to Sunday’s Final.
The Multitalented 18-year-old Afruka Gentle, who also is member of the National Women’s Cricket Squad, had beaten Number one seed Cristy Campbell in the Women’s Singles Final after teaming up with her to take the Women’s doubles title.
The big hitting Gentle completed an outstanding tournament when pair off with Lewis to take the Mixed Double title.
New GBTI Men’s Singles Champion Gavin Lewis beat Gregoire Vincent 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
In the much anticipated Men’s Final, Vincent won the Racket spin and chose to serve and Lewis broke in the first game to up 3-0 before it was 3-1 when Vincent held serve.
Lewis went up 4-1 in the first and Vincent fought his way back and pushed it to 3-4 before Lewis closed out in the next two games.
In the second set Vincent came out aggressively; throwing down some very hard severs which he forced Lewis to hit out on the returns.
Vincent executed some excellent inside-out forehands and down the line backhands which seemed to confuse Lewis who looked a bit laboured after a hard tournament as Vincent, in about 22 minutes, rushed through to a 6-1 second set.
A Fair sized gathering which included for Caribbean Squash Queen Nicolet Fernandes watched Sunday Night’s Men’s Singles Final.
In the third set Vincent came out with the same momentum and broke Lewis in the first game and held serve and broke Lewis again to go up 3-0.
On the switch over, with Lewis fans offering plenty of encouragement at the side of the Court, Lewis broke him back, held serve and got the other break to go up to 5-3 before Vincent again held serve.
The raucous support for Lewis seemed to have on effect on Vincent, who seemed nervous and made some unforced errors as Lewis romped to a 6-4 win in the last set.
Meanwhile, the Presentation Ceremony will be held at the GBTI Club in Bel Air tomorrow afternoon.
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