Intermittent downpours cause fixture backlog at WER Joell Tennis Stadium on day one
Inclement weather caused severe disruption on the opening day of main-draw action at the WER Joell Tennis Stadium, leaving tournament organisers facing an immediate fixture backlog in Pembroke.
Intermittent downpours restricted Tuesday’s play to just four completed singles rubbers and one interrupted doubles match as the first of back-to-back ITF M15 events got under way.
Local hopes suffered an early blow when Bermudian wildcard Tariq Simons fell in straight sets to fourth seed Alvin Nicholas Tudorica. The Canadian broke decisively in both sets to seal a clinical 6-3, 6-2 victory.
Jamaican top seed Blaise Bicknell navigated his opener with minimal fuss, asserting baseline control to brush aside American Drew Van Orderlain 6-1, 6-4. In the remaining singles fixtures, Nathan Cox dispatched Alexander Bernard 6-3, 6-1, while Jacob Brumm defeated Rohan Sachdev 6-1, 6-2 in another all-American contest.
A second downpour halted the sole doubles tie of the day, where Barbadian duo Kaipo Marshall and Stephen Slocombe led Canadian fourth seeds Volodymyr Gurenko and Niels Peter Van Noord 6-4, 3-1 before play was abandoned.
