In the Men?s Masters 45 and Over Doubles, the veterans Billy Musa, Sr., and Sonny Meighan went up against Dr. Raju and David Madrid in the finals. Dr. Raju and Madrid came out with a bang. They played very aggressively, hitting some solid ground strokes and placing their volleys well. Musa and Meighan could not seem to handle the pace and lost the first set, 6-2. Dr. Raju and Madrid continued with their game plan and took an early 4-1 lead in the second set. At this point, however, it seemed that Musa and Meighan changed their game plan and started to take control of the game by using a lot of lobs, which slowed down the game and created some openings for them to make some good shots. Musa and Meighan made a run and eventually tied the score in the second set. It seemed, however, that this took a lot out of the veterans. They appeared very fatigued when the score was tied at 6 all. Raju and Madrid, recognizing this, started to place the balls in key areas on the court which gave Musa and Meighan difficulty to retrieve. In the end it was Dr. Raju and Madrid who went on to win the finals and the match in straight sets – 6-2, 7-6 (tiebreaker). The Men?s Open Singles final was very exciting this year as we were treated to some excellent tennis by two French finalists. Defending champion Mathieu Soto went up against his friend and countryman, Jerome Subtil. This match started out with Soto dominating the match using his powerful serve, precise volleying and excellent court craft. However, it did not take too long for Subtil to figure out what he needed to do, to change things around. Subtil, who has a well rounded game, started to use his slice backhand which kept the balls very low. He also started to place his shots in the key areas of the court and it seemed that Soto had trouble moving for these balls. Subtil continued with his game plan. He played most of his shots very craftily with lots of consistency. Soto started to make a lot of unforced errors and this, in the end, cost him the match and the tournament. Subtil went on to win in straight sets – 6-4, 6-3. There were four top Mexican players who also took part in the tournament and three of them gave a very good account of themselves. In the quarterfinals and semifinals, three of them (Mark Rigal Perez, the number one Open Men?s player in Quintana Roo; Enrique Bautista; and Rogelio Guerrero, number two Open Men?s player in Quintana Roo) played some excellent tennis, giving the fans a treat to a higher caliber of tennis than is usually seen in Belize. The presentation of trophies was done by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Eamon Courtenay, and the Ambassador of Mexico to Belize, His Excellency, Arturo Trejo Nava. The President of the Belize Tennis Association and the Belize Olympic Association, Mr. Billy Musa, Sr. and Mr. Ned Pitts, respectively, acknowledged and presented Certificates of Achievement and attendance to the Belizean tennis players who took the Level One Coaching Seminar that was held in July. The Vote of Thanks was done by Mr. Sonny Meighan.
