Local favourite falls to American Carel Ngounoue at Joell Stadium to end Bermuda’s singles hopes
Local favourite Trey Mallory suffered an agonising three-set defeat on day two of the ITF M15 tournament at the WER Joell Tennis Stadium, ending Bermudian interest in the singles draw.
Back-to-back days of weather-affected scheduling in Pembroke saw organisers racing to clear the backlog, with home supporters packing the courts to rally behind Mallory.
The Bermudian flew out of the blocks against American Carel Ngounoue, dominating the baseline exchanges to sweep the opening set 6-1. However, Ngounoue responded sharply, raising his consistency to take the second 6-3 before breaking late in a tense decider to clinch a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
Elsewhere in the singles draw, Barbadian veteran Darian King was ruthless, dismantling Canada’s Volodymyr Gurenko 6-1, 6-0 in under an hour. Compatriot Kaipo Marshall pushed Poland’s Kacper Szymkowiak the distance before falling 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, while American Matt Kuhar recovered from a set down to oust Jamaican challenger John Chin 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. Qualifier Kian Vakili also advanced, edging fellow American Gray Voelzke 7-5, 7-6.
Marshall secured redemption later in the afternoon, partnering Stephen Slocombe to an entertaining 6-4, 6-7, [10-5] match-tiebreak triumph over Canadian fourth seeds Gurenko and Niels Peter Van Noord to reach the doubles quarter-finals.
