Rain fails to stop Downy Classic’s success

The Downy Tennis Classic at Tryall Golf and Country Club last weekend was better than expected according to tournament organiser Simon Casserley, although rain threatened to put a damper on the inaugural staging.

Dwayne Pagon took the major prize on offer after he defeated McCoy Malcolm 6-1, 7-5 for the men's open title.

The men's Class Two event went to Richard Deenah, who won by default after Michael Sutherland retired hurt with the game locked at 1-1 in the first set.

Kenrick Picknight stopped Carlington Burrell 6-4, 6-3 in a competitive contest for the Class Three title.

The ladies' crown went to Kemi Richardson who defeated Helena Parkinson 6-3, 6-4 in that final.

The mixed doubles was won by the Nicholas Chung and Marsha Thomas combination, who turned back Davian Burrell and Latoya Facey 6/3.

Casserley admitted that the rain delayed some of the men's open quarter-final matches, which were scheduled for Saturday and that forced some of those games to spill over into Sunday morning. He was, however, pleased Sunday allowed for a full day of tennis.

"We are very happy with how it turned out with the first staging of the event. It was everything that could be expected," he said.

"We had a rain delay on Saturday which meant that on Sunday some of the men's open competitors had to play three matches. They had to play the quarterfinal, the semifinal and the final on the same day, which was gruelling and we saw that it took its toll on McCoy Malcolm, as in the final he was visibly tired," Casserley said.

He disclosed that Pagon was one of those who completed his quarterfinal match on Saturday, which meant he only had two games to play the following day, the semis in the morning and the final in the afternoon. Malcolm played three matches on the final day.

"I wouldn't say that would have changed the result because Dwayne was the No 1 seed and he prevailed.

"But the tournament was good. We are happy as it exceeded our expectations and the expectations of a lot of sponsors and everybody is talking about next year. So we are hoping that this will be the first of many," he remarked.

"After the rain on Saturday, I started saying some prayers and they were answered because we had a good day Sunday."

He was also impressed with the quality of tennis and the level of competition.

"We had 65 entries which we think was a very good turnout and the quality of play was high.

"All the events were keenly contested except for the men's Class Two event where a player had to retire because of injury, but that game also promised to be a very close contest," he noted.