SQUASH SUPREMACY has come down to another Karen Meakins/Cheri-Ann Parris showdown.
The sport’s top two women’s players predictably booked their spots for last night’s highly anticipated final with a pair of lopsided semi-final wins in Friday’s action of the First Citizens Barbados Squash Open at Marine Gardens.
Twelve-time national queen and defending champ Meakins coasted to an 11-3, 11-1, 11-3 straight-games victory over fellow national player Alex Jordan while second-seeded Parris dismissed former Caribbean junior queen Nadia McCarthy 11-5, 11-4, 11-6.
They proved a stark contrast to the men’s final four, where top seed and reigning title holder Richard Chin of Guyana had a hard-fought 11-7, 11-5, 11-9 win over Trinidadian Colin Ramasra to book his third Barbados Open finals appearance.
This was after current national champ Gavin Robinson came back from down two games to one to upend one-time Barbados king Shawn Simpson in an epic 12-10, 10-12, 10-12, 11-8, 12-10 five-game thriller.
In a match where every game could’ve gone either way, it was Cumberbatch who took the contest’s biggest points, winning the last two following a 10-10 deadlock in the deciding game.
Teenager Stewart St John and fellow former junior player Ryan Foster also recorded impressive wins in the Men’s A plate by beating veterans Stuart Tippleston and Leon Truss, respectively. (JM/PR)
