TWO MORE JUNIORS romped into the quarter-finals of the Bush Hall Dungeon Road Tennis competition when it continued at the Deighton “Pa” Roach Tennis Centre on Monday night.
In the “B” class division, both Darius “Baraccus” Gaskin and Dario Hinds booked their spots with comfortable straight set victories over Leroy Best and Clyde “Airlock” Griffith respectively.
It means they will have three juniors in the final eight, with defending champion Emar Edwards having already qualified.
Gaskin easily disposed of Best, 21-10, 21-10, while Hinds overcame some early nerves before downing Griffith 21-16, 21-12.
The final two quarter-final berths went to Simon Bayne and Randy Bennett, who also recorded straight set wins over their opponents.
Bayne, one of the pre-tournament favourites, was forced to fight tooth and nail before finally overcoming Ryan Hall 26-24, 24-22 in the game of the night.
Hall had seemed headed for victory in the opening set when he took a 19-17 lead in the closing stages, but Bayne fought back to deuce the game.
The St Philip-based Hall then muffed three straight set point opportunities, allowing Bayne to take a crucial 1-0 lead.
Hall will no doubt be extremely disappointed to have lost the ensuing set after controlling the game for most of the contest.
Despite Bayne erasing most of an early 5-10 deficit, Hall once again found himself in a strong position to win the set, holding a 20-19 advantage.
But once again, Bayne kept his composure to deuce the game and come away with the 24-22 win.
Bennett too had to survive three sets’ points against Adrian Scott in the first set, before defeating his opponent 24-22, 21-12.
Scott contributed to his downfall in the second set, as he regularly committed unforced errors in his hurried attacks.
It led to him digging himself into an eight-point hole (11-19) from which he never recovered.
In the dungeon division, Ronald Chapman stopped Trevor Callender 21-10, 21-13, Tyrone “Picker” Jones defeated Othneil “Oilman” Gill 10-21, 21-19, 21-14 and Rodney Duke dismissed 21-14, 21-9.
Tyrone “Lebron” Carter also remained unbeaten with a 21-16, 21-14 win over Anthony Bowen and Emmerson Cummins upset Richard “Danny Boy” King 21-18, 16-21, 23-21. (RB)
