Wilson, Lingo crowned TATT champs

Wilson, the 2009 Coca Cola ITF Junior Circuit Men’s winner, breezed through the opening set with De Caires unable to find his rhythm and range of shots that saw him eliminate the top seed Richard Chung on Saturday. He was beginning to lose patience with himself, and openly questioned a number of the umpires calls. Wilson, however, the second seed in the draw, maintained his discipline to take the set 6-2, executing a number of delightful forehand winners past a stunned De Caires.

The second set opened like the first, with the Tobagonian’s steady play prevailing over the erratic De Caires. But with Wilson ahead 3-2, De Caires suddenly began to find his shots, dispatching several fiery forehands past his opponent. He broke Wilson on love to level the match and left him without a game point again to hold and take the lead. It was more of the same in the next game as De Caires broke Wilson again to take an unlikely 3-5 lead. The match looked to have turned on its head with De Caires looking in good touch to take the set and sustained the match.

Wilson, however, was unfazed by the sudden and remarkable transformation in play by De Caires as shots he was previously hitting out and into the net were finding the baseline.

With De Caires serving for the set and his fans behind him, Wilson broke his serve and his spirit to claw his way back into the set. He held serve to make it 5-5 and as De Caires did earlier in the set, he won his third straight game to take a 6-5 lead. A beaten and despondent De Caires was unable to put any pressure on Wilson’s serve which he held to take the sets 7-5 and the match in two.

Meanwhile, number two seed Lee-Anne Lingo met top seed Renee Branker in the Women’s Singles final. Lingo, the 2009 Public Courts Classified champion, started the better of the pair, holding serve and then breaking her opponent to race to a 2-0 advantage with a classy backhand winner down the line. Branker would not roll over that easily, however, as she got back the break immediately and held serve to level the match at 2-2, sending down a blistering ace wide of Lingo. Both players began to correct their early mistakes on service as the set progressed to 4-4. Branker failed to capitalise on a break point as Lingo held to take a 5-4 lead. And with the pressure transferred back to her, Branker folded on her serve to give her rival the set 6-4.

Lingo stepped it up a notch in the second set, sending Branker chasing after her wonderfully executed shots at will. She would wrap up the set with ease 6-1 to complete a straight sets victory against her top ranked opponent.