19 years on Hickling brings back CI men's title

CHRIS HICKLING has become the first Guernsey winner of the Barclays Channel Islands Closed title since its inception in 1984. It was sweet revenge for the New Zealander as he overcame Patrick Ogier in the final, only a week after the Sarnian teenager had defeated him in the Guernsey Closed event.

'It is really good to be the first Guernsey player to win it. It was one of my key goals of the year - I really wanted to win this one,' said Hickling .

'I lost to Pat the previous week when he played really well, but I was eager to win this one and luckily enough, it went my way.'

The final at Les Ormes in Jersey turned out to be a slightly one-sided affair as Hickling ran out the 6-0, 6-2 winner, but he was full of praise for his young Guernsey colleague.

'It was quite amazing the fact that two Guernsey players got to the final. Pat beat a top Jersey player in the semi-final in Ian Morgan and it was quite exciting that we knew that one of us would bring the trophy back here. I am just rapped that I managed to do it.

'There were a couple of factors to it. I played better than I did the previous week and Pat definitely did not play as well, I think he might have been a bit tired from his semi.

'Also, the surface was a lot better for me because it was a hard court, which is faster than the astro we played the Guernsey final on.

'So it was a combination of things,' he added.

Hickling had had a mixed passage to the final.

He was a comfortable 6-2, 6-0 victor over Matt Harris in the quarter-finals but he faced a stern test in the last four against Jersey's Michael Brugrabber.

It was a contest between the two fastest servers in the tournament and each tried to outgun the other.

The first set went to Hickling 6-2, but Brugrabber came firing back on all cylinders to take the second 6-3 to set up an exciting third set, eventually won by the Guernsey player 6-2. The score belies the fact that there were some very long rallies in this hard-fought match.

Ogier, on the other hand, had to go to deciding sets in both his quarter-final and semi-final.

He met another teenager in his first match, Jersey's Dale Broadhead and they produced some exhilarating tennis with the Sarnian coming out as the eventual winner.

The 16-year-old then came up against the much more experienced Morgan in a semi-final that materialised into a titanic three-setter. The two players regularly hit together so both knew each other's game.

Morgan needed to use all his wits to outmanoeuvre his young opponent and take the opening set 7-5.

However, Ogier stepped up a gear in the second set and with one break of serve took it 6-3.

With the tennis continuing to be of a very high standard in the third set, it was Ogier who edged it 6-4 to earn his spot in the final.

However, whether it was the occasion, the early start or the possibility of being the youngest winner of the CI Closed, Ogier could not get going in the match with Hickling. But there is little doubt that he will get his name on the cup in the years to come.

Hickling was to clinch a second trophy when he claimed the doubles with Mark Connelly.

They suffered a fright in the semi-final at the hands of Cox and Forte, but in the final they pulled off a straight sets victory against Morgan and Gareth Roberts, 6-2, 6-1.

'We both played really top- quality tennis in that final. They are both good players we were playing against, but we just played really well and I had no pressure on me because I had already done what I wanted to do in the singles,' said Hickling.