Higgins and Dyer take top honours

ALI HIGGINS and Joanna Dyer won the top singles prizes at the Ipes Guernsey Junior Open. It was a fine win for Higgins in the boys' section.

In the semi-finals he came up against the visiting Josh White from Hamble, who has the same LTA rating as Higgins and Jonny Taylor.

Having never played each other, it was a challenge for both and it was White who started the better, taking the first set 6-2 and continuing that form at the beginning of the second.

However, Higgins worked his way back into the match and, thanks to a combination of his improvement and a couple of errors from his opponent, the Sarnian took the set 6-4.

Now on top form, Higgins worked White around the court well in the third and eventually took it 6-2.

The second semi-final saw Taylor take on Nico Robinson and although the latter put up a good battle, he was unable to overcome the higher-rated player.

The final was, therefore, contested between great friends and adversaries on the tennis court and it was a see-saw encounter.

Some excellent tennis was put on for those watching and a very competitive first set eventually went to Taylor in a tie-break.

Once again, however, Higgins showed great mental strength to put aside that initial disappointment.

With some excellent cross-court passing shots and additional pressure on his opponent, he finally succeeded in a 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory.

The third-fourth play-off saw an excellent win for Robinson, who beat White in three sets.

The girls' open singles was played on a round-robin basis but, with both having beaten the other four players involved, the last match between Dyer and Megan Hearse proved to be the competition decider.

Although Dyer came out a 6-1, 6-0 winner, the match was far more competitive than the scoreline suggests.

Both girls hit the ball well and there were many hard rallies throughout but, in the end, Dyer was the more consistent.

In the boys' doubles, Higgins and Taylor teamed up to win the tournament.

They met La Mare Tennis Club pairing and 2005 winners Gareth Coombes and Tom de Garis, who had succeeded in putting out the UK pairing of White and James Trant in the semi-final, in the final.

Despite a good fight from the La Mare boys, Higgins and Taylor proved too strong and won 6-4, 6-3.

In his third final of the day, Taylor partnered Hearse against Todd Priaulx and Dyer in the mixed doubles. On this occasion, the two singles runners-up were title winners by a 6-1, 6-2 scoreline.

The final of the under-10s saw a repeat of the match between Jack Oldfield and Jessica Rigby.

In the round-robin stage they had simply played one short set but in the final they played two, which were very competitively contested with both showing tennis knowledge and shots well beyond their years.

There were long rallies with both working each other around the court.

The sets were shared with Oldfield taking the first 6-4 and Rigby the second 6-3.

The match then went down to a championship tie-break, with the first to 10 points being the winner.

Oldfield took the ascendancy early on before Rigby forced her way back to level at eight-all, but the former claimed the vital last couple of points.

Both players are likely to be great prospects for Guernsey tennis in the future and Rigby was awarded the Watson Trophy for the player who showed great promise and endeavour.

Other trophies in the boys' open consolation groups were won by David Butler, Gareth Grand and Harry Martel.

In the under-14 doubles events, the boys was won by Robinson and Oliver Shier, the girls by Dyer and Hearse and the mixed by Robinson and Dyer.