Antigua and Barbuda Cup a success says tennis boss

The second instalment of Antigua and Barbuda Cup put on by the local tennis association has been deemed a success. 
Held at the National Tennis Centre located at Campsite, the tournament hosted 56 players both from Antigua and across the globe and also featured a clash between Antigua’s professional player, Jody Maginley and retired Australian professional, Mark Philippoussis. 
President of the Antigua and Barbuda Tennis Association, Cordell Williams, was pleased with the success of the one-week event despite challenges. 
“The exhibition came off well and on that Sunday a lot of rain was coming and by two o’clock the rain stopped, we dried the courts and the good thing about us is that we had lights down there so when it held up in the afternoon we could have pushed the matches. As junior players, the latest you could play is up until nine o’clock in the night so we managed to catch up on some of the matches that we fell behind on and managed to finish the tournament on time,” he said.  
Norway’s Casper Christensen claimed the boys’ singles title, beating USA’s Toby Alex Kodat 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the finals while the U.S. pair of Kodat and Billy Suarez captured the doubles prize, winning 6-1, 6-0 over Kaipo Marshall of Barbados and Xaveam M. van Wijk of Curacao. 
In the girls division, Sasha Wood of the U.S.A. made light work of the Bahamas’ Sydney Clarke, winning 6-3, 7-5 to lift the title. Team U.S.A. also dominated the doubles final when Artemis Pados and Gabriella Soliman beat the team of Sydney Clarks (Bahamas) and Tangia Riley-Codrington (Barbados) 6-1, 6-4. 
Williams said the tennis association has had a good year. 
“When you look at success you’d look at the three tournaments we put on this year and all three tournaments are sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation and based on that, it goes out to all the tennis nations across the world. We’ve had players from Germany, India, Canada, the U.S., France Martinique and all over the world traveling here,” he said. 
Australia’s Philippoussis had beaten Maginley on a tie-breaker in a close exhibition contest.