Nigel Si­mon

Aleena Ed­wards of the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T smashed her way to her sec­ond women's Open ti­tle in three years and record ninth over­all when the So­lo Na­tion­al Ta­ble Ten­nis Tour­na­ment con­clud­ed at the Cen­tral Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na, Ch­agua­nas on Wednes­day night. In the women's de­cider, Ed­wards bat­tled past Lin­da Par­tap-Bood­han of Ari­ma Hawks in an en­ter­tain­ing clash, 11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 8-11, 6-11, 11-9. With the win, Ed­wards col­lect­ed the $1,000 win­ner's cheque and the ti­tle left va­cant by her younger sis­ter, As­tra Ed­wards-Ben­nett who did not en­ter this year's event. Ear­li­er on in the semi­fi­nal round, Ed­wards who led UTT to the women's team ti­tle last week­end was al­so stretched to sev­en-sets by 18-year-old Ash­ley Quashine of Care­nage Blasters be­fore she pre­vailed 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 3-11, 12-10, 7-10, 13-11.

Par­tap-Bood­han stopped Wood­brook Glad­i­a­tors Av­er­nelle Abra­ham 11-8, 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 in the oth­er semi­fi­nal. A new cham­pi­on was al­so crowned in the men's sin­gles com­pe­ti­tion as lo­cal Ta­ble Ten­nis As­so­ci­a­tion and East Zone pres­i­dent, Reeza Burke of Hawks tri­umphed for a fifth time to climb with­in one of France-based Dex­ter St Louis for over­all ti­tles. Burke, who had al­ready tast­ed suc­cess in the men's team tour­na­ment and men's dou­bles with An­son Welling­ton out­classed sur­prise fi­nal­ist and US-based Nazrud­din As­gar­ali 11-8, 12-14, 11-5, 11-9, 15-13 for the $1,200 ti­tle.

Burke de­feat­ed 2005 cham­pi­on and se­nior As­gar­ali's son Khaleel As­gar­ali, 1-11, 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 13-11 in the quar­ter­fi­nal be­fore he brushed aside So­lo Cru­saders' Ter­ry Corbin 11-4, 11-9, 11-6, 11-4 in the semi­fi­nals. The old­er As­gar­ali mean­while stunned last year's win­ner Michael Nan­ton of D'Abadie Youths 11-7, 6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5 and dis­posed of 2007 win­ner and last year's run­ner-up, US-based Dayanand Ma­haraj 11-5, 8-11, 1-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8 in his fi­nal-four en­counter.

In the two oth­er men's quar­ter­fi­nal en­coun­ters, played on Wednes­day night, Ma­haraj got the bet­ter of Yu­vraj Dookram 8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9 in a clash of US-based play­ers while Corbin oust­ed Cuban-based Aaron Ed­wards, 11-4, 11-5, 8-11, 11-9 in the best-of-five set match. By virtue of their re­spec­tive vic­to­ries, Ed­wards and Burke gain se­lec­tion on the se­nior na­tion­al team for the Caribbean Ta­ble-Ten­nis Cham­pi­onship sched­uled for Guyana from Au­gust 12-19. How­ev­er, it is left to be seen if the duo would take up the of­fer or make room for younger play­ers as they are both coach­es of the na­tion­al teams.