Round of 32 Begins this Weekend!

Four of the heavyweights in Barbados’ road tennis fraternity are through to the round of 32 in the BRTO 2025.

This after they secured victories in the final set of matches in the round of 64, on Day Six of the island’s most prestigious road tennis tournament, at the Grantley Adams Memorial School in St Joseph. They are defending champion Mark “Venom” Griffith, Antonio “Lil Man” Daniel,  Dario Hinds  and Davien “Force Ripe” Taylor, who all had their first outings in the tournament this year.

Griffith looked in great nick as he demolished Anthony “Prince” Haynes 21-3, 21-4  inside of eleven minutes. Prince on the night simply couldn’t contain ‘the King’  of Barbados’ road tennis whose royalty was brightly displayed for all his subjects to see.

Davien Taylor was workman like in defeating Ahijan Blunt in straight sets 21-18, 21-15, whilst Dario Hinds dismissed Nolan Stuart Junior 21-11, 21-2, within 17 minutes.

However, Antonio “Lil Man” Daniel had to dig deep to stave off Trevor Ifill in what was undoubtedly the game of the night. Daniel won the first game 21-15, after it was tied up at 7-7.

But after Daniel took the lead at 8-7, he never looked back, leading for the rest of the game to secure the win. However, Ifill roared right back to take the second game 21-16 to set up the third and decisive game. That game was a thriller with the score being tied on at least four occasions, 3-3, 6-6, 9-9 and 16-16 before Daniel went ahead 17-16.

After that Daniel never let up, pressing ahead to take the win in the decider at 21-17. At the end of 43 minutes of great tennis, the scoreboard showed that Daniel had outpointed Ifill 21-15, 16-21, 21-17 in a game of high quality tennis that brought the crowd to its feet on numerous occasions, as the sounds of the horns filled the school hall.

In other results on the night Adrian Scott also advanced to the round of 32 as he cruised past Christopher Renee 21-11, 21-13 within 20 minutes, whilst Dwayne Lynch eased past Ryan Brathwaite 21-14, 21-10, in 14 minutes.

The action in the BRTO 2025 continues next weekend with the round of 32 on Saturday night at Belfield in St Michael, whilst on Sunday night the action switches to Checker Hall in St Lucy.