Ogier handed title by injured No.1

PATRICK OGIER became the youngest winner of the men's Channel Islands championships yesterday at the Guernsey Indoor Tennis Centre. At the age of 17, he was one of three juniors to make it through to the last four and is only the second Guernsey player to have taken the title in the last 15 years.

Eight of the top ranked players from the two islands were hand-picked for the tournament, six from Guernsey.

'It's a great tournament and something for the younger guys to play for and with three under 18-year-olds in the final four, the future is looking good,' said men's county captain Ian Morgan.

Ogier met Rob West, 17, in the semis, winning 6-1, 7-6 after a tense tie-breaker which looked like it could go either way. In the final he faced number one seed, South-African Pieter Theron.

Unfortunately Theron was carrying a groin injury and after struggling through the semi against Dominic McLusky, 15, he was forced to retire in the third set of the final. He took the opening set 6-1, lost the second 2-6 and stopped at 1-4 games down.

'I started off slowly but I started serving better and hitting the ball harder, which gave me more confidence,' said Ogier.

'I enjoy playing to a crowd and the noise tends to spur me on. The match had been quite slow because he was injured so I tried to get myself moving and get aggressive.

'It was a nicely played match. He was brilliant in the first set and hit so many winners and I'm sorry that he was injured and we couldn't finish it.'

Ogier is now looking towards the Channel Islands county tournament at the end of November and the national club league, in which the Guernsey team have now moved up a level.

In the other quarters, reigning champion Chris Hickling was beaten by McLusky 6-2, 7-6.

The doubles tournament was also tightly fought out over the weekend, meaning that some players had to play three matches in one day.

Experience counted in the end with Theron and Hickling beating the junior pairing of West and McLusky 6-4, 6-3.