A New Women’s Road Tennis Champion on the Horizon

A new women's champion of road tennis will be crowned on Saturday, September 20th when the finals of the Barbados Road Tennis Open 2025 are held at the Wildey Gymnasium.

This after Rachel Smith upset defending women’s champion Kim Holder in straight sets last night before a large crowd at Dover, to reach the finals of the island’s most prestigious road tennis tournament for the first time.

Smith hardly put a foot wrong in the first game as she virtually led from start to finish holding a six-point 18 to12 lead at one stage. Even though Holder clawed her way back to narrow the deficit Smith held her nerves, form and composure to close out that game at 21-17 inside of 11 minutes.

In the second game Holder decided to make the running and held an early 7-2 lead before Smith dug deep to level it up at 8-8. After being tied at 9-9 Smith then opened up a two-point lead going ahead 11-9.

After that in horseracing terms, ‘she kicked clear” to open up an eight-point lead at 19-11 and galloped straight to the line in resolute fashion to 21-11 securing her place in the final, in front of a crowd that included Barbados’ top reinsman, Patrick ‘Bowmel’ Husbands, who in racing terms ‘would have approved of that ride.’

At the end of that match-up as Smith fell to her knees and kissed the court, the scoreboard showed that she had overcome Holder 21-17, 21-11 within 25 minutes to face-off against Sheldene Walrond on Saturday night for the first prize of twenty thousand dollars.

This, after Walrond defeated Maudlyn Blunt 23-21, 21-14 in straight setsto also advance to Saturday’s final.

The first game between Walrond and Blunt was very close being tied up several times at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 16-16, 17-17, 18-18, 19-19, deuce at 20-20 and again at 21-21.

However, when Walrond went ahead 22-21, her body language reflected the hunger, drive and passion for victory which she achieved at 23-21. The second game was also tied up several times early on, but after Walrond secured an 8-7 lead, she increased it to 17-10 and never looked back to secure the win at 21-14.

In the end she prevailed over Blunt 23-21- 21-14 to safely book her place in Saturday’s final.

All eyes now turn to the Wildey Gymnasium on Saturday night for who will be crowned the 2025 Female Champion of the Barbados Road Tennis Open.