Taj Ballantyne cops first SVGCC tennis title

Taj Ballantyne is the first ever St Vincent and the Grenadines Tennis Association – SVG Community College individual tennis champion.

Ballantyne prevailed in a thrilling three-set final against Sebastian Cyrus, which was played last Wednesday afternoon at the National Tennis Centre.{{more}}

In a fitting final of the inaugural competition, Ballantyne took the lead, as he easily won the first set of the final 6-2. But Cyrus stormed back to win the second set, 6-1.

The third set tie-breaker was exhilarating, with Cyrus leading 8-5 at one point, only for Ballantyne to come back and level the scores at 9-9.

Then it was a trading of points from one player to the other, before Ballantyne eventually held his nerve to end the third set at 18-16.

Earlier in the day, Cyrus won the third set of his semi-final match against Yanic Grant 10-5, after each player had previously won a set, when the match was forced to be suspended due to bad light on Monday.

In the third place playoff, Yanic Grant had the better of Chelsea Haslam 6-2, 6-0.(RT)