Tapping into home support
ALEX TAPP thrilled the home crowd and himself as he won singles honours at the Easter Open.
In a rare feat for a local badminton player, he overcame a field containing several classy visitors to claim the open singles at the Guernsey Senior Silver and Masters Bronze.
Tapp’s remarkable run at the Rohais culminated in a two-set victory over Oxfordshire youngster Anthony Peverell on Saturday’s finals afternoon.
He had earlier beaten Dan Davey in the semi-final and won a tough three-setter against Rafael Cresdee in the quarters.
‘I’m absolutely over the moon,’ he said.
‘I knew it was going to be hard. Looking at the draw before the tournament, I saw my group and I thought if I could bring a level, I had a chance of making it to the final.
‘I had a game plan to stick behind to win in front of my family, my girlfriend and the home crowd, and it’s just the best feeling ever – I couldn’t have asked for anything better.’
He focused on his attack and gradually sussed out his opponent in the first set, where he came back from 10-5 down to win 22-20.
In the second, he raced out of the blocks and never gave his opponent a look-in, winning 21-10.
He had also combined with David Trebert to win the open doubles, having lost out in the final last year.
Their rivals’ injury-prompted withdrawal meant they did not even need to line up for a final this time.
‘To be able to get across the line this year, albeit with our opponents having to pull out, I think it’s a great achievement for us and hopefully we can push on and start looking at medalling at the Island Games individual and possibly the Commonwealths,’ Tapp added.
The women’s singles resulted in an all-visitors final, where favourite Anne Hubscher dominated Anna Kondratieva 21-9, 21-10.
However, Emily Trebert and Carys Batiste reached the women’s doubles final and put up a great fight there.
They raced to a 3-0 lead against Hubscher and partner Bhavika Mistry before, after a reversal of fortunes led to a seven-point deficit, battling back to lose the first set 24-22.
Unfortunately for the Sarnians, their opponents hit a big run from 15-all in the second to triumph 21-16.
Hubscher completed the treble by joining Andrew Jones to beat Trebert and Paul Le Tocq 21-17, 21-15 in the mixed doubles.
