Julian “Michael Jackson” White has become a marked man recently.
Barbados’ top-ranked player will have his hands full in defending his ‘A’ class title in the SJ Health & Bakery Limited Punches In Bunches Road Tennis Tournament Sunday at 6 p.m.
The tournament, which is in its second year, will feature 36 ‘B’ class players, as well as 18 ‘A’ class competitors.
A new ‘B’ class champion will be crowned as last years’ winner, John ”Floats” Cumberbatch, has not entered the tournament.
The winner of the ‘A’ class will receive $1 000 and a watch, the runner-up will get $700, while third and fourth will both take home $300.
Players in the ‘B’ class will compete for a top prize of $700 as well as a watch, second place will get $400, and $200 will be awarded to the third and fourth place finishers.
Matches will be played on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at the Belfield road tennis court.
Tournament organizer, Stig Merritt, told MIDWEEKSPORT they had chosen to move away from the invitation-only format introduced last year as more players had expressed an interest.
“This year, we have chosen to make the competition an open event as opposed to last year where we limited the entrants to players from Bush Hall and Belfield, mainly,” Merritt said.
Merritt added that the players in both divisions would be seeded, depending on their performance in last years’ tournament.
White, the defending champion, will be the No. 1 seed in the ‘A’ class, while Anthony “Ears” Mitchell will be ranked No. 2.
Some of the island’s top road tennis players, including two-time Silver Hill Road Tennis champion Mark “Venom” Griffith, Jeffery “Borah” Best, Adrian “Dan” Skeete and Curtis Jones are also expected to participate.
Having been defeated by Mitchell, the eventual champion, at the semi-final stage in last weekend’s Last Man Standing Shotgun tournament, White will be out to silence the critics who believe that his best days are behind him.
White also lost to Griffith in the finals of the Silver Hill Road Tennis Championships last month.
The ‘B’ class is also shaping up to be very competitive, with last year’s losing finalist, Junior “Big Arms” Boucher, seeded No.1, and Andrew “Cripple” Holder, at No. 2.
They are expected to face some strong opposition from Terry ”Boss Hog” Skeete, Terry Dottin, Philip “Foff” Garner and Marco Coaotor.
