It was sheer joy for Kale Dalla Costa on Saturday, after he picked up two titles in the COTECC Trinidad Summer Bowl Tennis Tournament which unfolded at the St Augustine Tennis Courts at Mc Carthy Street.
He convincingly toppled compatriot Daniel Rahaman 4-0, 4-1 in the Boys’ Under-12 Singles final, after earlier partnering with Jayden Mitchell to seal the doubles crown.Dalla Costa was in terrific form en route to the Boys’ Singles title match, defeating Jair Akaamba of Suriname 4-0, 4-1 in the semifinals after eliminating another Surinamese player, Lyaaz Poese, 4-0, 4-1. His opponent Rahaman took out Suriname’s Tristan Verkuiil (4-1, 4-1) in the second round before knocking off Jordell Chapman (T&T) in a hard-fought 5-3, 4-2 win in their semifinal match-up.
In the other second-round matches, Akaamba beat Jayden Mitchell, 2-4, 4-2, 10-8 while Chapman (T&T) defeated Jesse Darnault (Suriname) 4-1, 4-0. Earlier, in the doubles competition, Dalla Costa and Mitchell swept Jair Akaamba/Lyaaz Poese (Suriname) in straight sets 4-0, 4-0 in the final.
In the semifinals, Dalla Costa and Mitchell had stopped other T&T duo Jordell Chapman and Lucas Small 4-1, 5-3, while Akaamba/Poese (Suriname) defeated Logan Hamel-Smith/Yeshoway Smith (T&T) 3-5, 4-0, 10-5.
This after the Dalla Costa/Mitchell team beat B’jorn Hall and Messiah Permell (T&T) 4-1, 1-4, 11-9 in the second round, while Akaamba/Poese (Suriname)outplayed T&T pair of Daniel Dumas and Malcolm Prince (T&T) 4-0, 4-0. In other results from this round, Chapman/Lucas Small (T&T) defeated Deron Dumas/Yohance Solomon (T&T) 4-1, 4-1 and Logan Hamel-Smith/Yeshoway Smith (T&T) topped Jesse Darnault/Tristan Verkuiil (Suriname) 5-3, 5-4.
Hamel-Smith and Smith met in the boys’ consolation final and it was the former coming away with a 6-1 victory. It was a good warmup for Dalla Costa and Mitchell, who will be representing T&T at the COTECC U-12 Masters, which starts tomorrow. Over in Antigua, where the COTECC U-14 Wadadli Bowl is taking place, T&T’s Jace Quashie and Nathen Martin will chase their second straight win after victories in their opening matches in their respective groups.
Quashie opened against Antigua’s Jonathan David and comfortably won 6-0, 6-0 in group four while in group three, Nathen Martin defeated Justin Raeburn, 6-1, 6-2.
Round two in the round-robin competition continues today with Quashie facing Barbadian Anthony Elliott and Martin will be challenged by another Bajan player, Zach Anthony.