(Trinidad Express) Chloe Fraser and Shemar Britton were crowned champions of the fifth and final major table tennis tournament of the season Wednesday night at National Racquet Centre, Tacarigua.
It was the second straight Super Singles title for Fraser and Britton has now struck gold in his last three attempts. The Guyanese was as heavy a favourite as imaginable, but Fraser was not expected to retain her title with Rosalba Aguiar involved in the women’s straight round-robin shootout.
The Cuban had not only defeated Guyana’s top player Chelsea Edghill and this country’s most successful ever female player Rheann Chung in the team events of the Caribbean Championships in April, she also reached the singles quarter-finals.
The champ was virtually decided right off the bat Wednesday, as the two contenders were drawn to clash in the first of the four rounds.
Fraser was expected to test Aguiar, but few expected her to be in the lead after three games.
And when the 19-year-old ran away with the next game to level proceedings, and then went up 8-6 in the decider, very few would have bet against her. But Fraser never gives up and won the next four points to eventually prevail 8-11, 11-6., 11-9, 3-11, 11-9.
Britton completed a personal Super Singles hat-trick but the process took six years, as after he was triumphant in 2018 and ’19, he did not play when the tournament returned after a three-year hiatus last December.
The University of the West Indies (St Augustine) student managed to drop only two games in his five matches in the straight robin-robin Final Six, and was expectedly followed home by his two Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPCC) Parkites team-mates. Yuvraaj Dookram was expected to finish second, but the 35-year-old 2017 champ looked flat after five straight days of action, and was beaten 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9 as Derron Douglas finished as the silver-medallist for the third time.
This United States-based 21-year-old, who seemed to be going through the motions the night before when he saved two match points of reach the last six, was a completely different player and really gave Britton something to think about in his 11-13, 11-5, 11-7, 11-8 loss in the first of the five rounds.
Luc O’Young ended fourth for the second straight year, and although two-time national champ Curtis Humphreys pulled out after two matches with injury, he did beat the winless Everton Sorzano to avoid the cellar spot.
Imani Edwards-Taylor finished with bronze among the women. And former champ Linda Partap-Boodhan, now 49 years old, relegated Elizabeth Rajah, a player 36 years her junior, to the rear in the women’s field.
