Vaughn Wilson and Akiel Duke stayed in the hunt to add to their men’s doubles title when they both advanced to the semifinals of this year’s singles in the Sunshine Snacks Tranquillity Tennis Open at the club’s Victoria Avenue, Port-of-Spain, clay courts Tuesday (March 10).
This was after the top-seeded Wilson—the three-time singles winner and titleholder—swept past Jack Brown 6-0, 6-2 and will face sixth-ranked Kale Dalla Costa.
To secure their spots in the semifinals Dalla Costa overwhelmed fourth-ranked Keshan Moonasar 6-2, 6-1, and fifth-ranked Duke upstaged third-ranked Dunstan De Noon 6-2, 6-2.
Duke will go on to play the winner of the remaining quarterfinal between second-ranked Andrew Thornton of Barbados and teenager Josiah Hills on Wednesday (March 11) .
Also on Wednesday will be the first of the women’s singles semifinals, featuring reigning champion and winner of this year’s women’s doubles already, Lee Anne Thornton, against Madison Khan, with Makeda Bain, the other half of the women’s doubles winning team, to play second-ranked Catherine Campbell-Frost in the other.
Last weekend in the men’s doubles final, Duke and Wilson overcame last year’s winner, Moonasar, and first-time partner Gian-Luc Robinson 5-7, 6-3, and 10-8 in the third-set tie-breaker.
It was a reversal of fortunes for Duke after he and Dunstan De Noon went under to Moonasar and Zachery Byng in last year’s final, 3-6, 5-7.
Earlier, in the men’s singles round of 16, Wilson trounced Adrian Jacob 6-0, 6-0; Brown dismissed eighth-ranked Askia Richards 6-2, 6-3; Moonasar steamrolled Kobe James 6-2, 6-3; Dalla Costa dumped Brendan De Voue 6-1, 6-1; Thornton stopped Robinson 6-4, 7-6(0); Hills advanced past seventh-ranked Ethan Ammon, who retired in the third set with the scores at 6-7(4), 6-2, 2-0; Duke ousted Christopher Khan 6-1, 6-3; and De Noon was a 7-5, 6-3 winner over Jayden Mitchell.
