The Barbados Open defending champion Karen Meakins, who has also won the last four Barbados national squash titles, clinically dispatched the top seeded Canadian, Ruchika Kumar, in straight games to win her fifth Barbados Ladies Open title when the curtain came down on the Trident Insurance Barbados Squash Open last night (Saturday).
Meakins, who is arguably the best female player to have ever represented Barbados at squash was seeded this year at #2, but gave a lesson to the top seeded 19 year old Canadian who was playing in a tournament in the Caribbean for the very first time.
In the ladies? final, that was played in front of a packed audience at the Barbados Squash Club, Meakins started a little nervously and at one time trailed Kumar 6-7 in the first game. However, after settling down, Meakins began to ruthlessly expose her opponent?s weakness on the backhand side of the court and kept pounding the ball deep into the backhand corner and waited for a loose return to employ her own trademark backhand straight drop shot into the front left corner. As a variation on this theme, occasionally Meakins would hit wide and deep to the forehand back corner and waited for the inevitable defensive boast and followed up with a deft straight winning drop. It was all over in a mere 30 minutes (9/7 9/1 9/3) as Meakins won 21 of the final 25 points in the match against her nonplussed opponent who was never able to employ her powerful forehand drives and volleys to any meaningful effect. The Men’s final was another matter entirely.
In another epic match of the highest quality that lasted 78 minutes, the #3 seed from Guyana, Shawn Badrinath, showed how much he has improved from last year by outlasting the French top seed Johan Bouquet, in a breathtaking encounter that went the full distance. The fact that Badrinath had played a five game marathon semi-final match against the #2 seed, Arthur Poupel, the night before was never evident as neither player in the Men’s final ever flagged. After half an hour Badrinath was two games to love up (at 4 and 5) and seemed in command. Bouquet then regrouped and began to play steadier and grew more confident as his immaculate length and excellent volleys caused a few errors to creep into the Badrinath game, notably on the drop. After a further 25 minutes had passed it was all square at two games each. Badrinath had only picked up five points in that time and it was Bouquet, ranked at #21 in France, who now had the look of a man who was supremely confident of his ability to outlast his opponent in the fifth game. It was not to be. Badrinath rushed to an early 4-0 lead, only to see it whittled away by his younger opponent who then gained the ascendancy at 7-5 and then at 8-5, match ball.
The Frenchman eventually had three match balls in all, but on each occasion Badrinath ended the rally with a heart stopping, audacious winner. Rally after rally saw both players running down seemingly irretrievable shots as if they had just started to play. As the packed audience gasped, on and on the final game went, and just like in his semi-final match the defending champion simply refused to lose. From a position of 6-8 down Badrinath clawed his way to 9-8, match ball in one hand. Bouquet had one more chance, but could not score on his serve, and with a great yelp of joy Badrinath clinched the 3-2 victory with another great winning crosscourt drop at the end of yet another grueling rally in a final game that lasted 20 minutes.
In the third place matches the second seeded Arthur Poupel, ranked #25 in France, dominated Gavin Cumberbatch throughout to win 3-0 in 22 minutes, as did Jamaican Karen Anderson over national squash captain, Sonia Perkins in 34 minutes.
Former three time national squash champion, Andrea Goodridge, looked like she is getting back to her best form and dropped only seven points in three games against Guyanese Kathy Shuffler to claim fifth place, while the hard hitting left hander, Shawn Simpson, upset the higher ranked St. Lucian, Charlie Sonson in four games in the Men’s equivalent. Barbadian Lilianna White and Robert Fernandes (Guyana) each claimed seventh place with comfortable wins over Gen Shim (Trinidad) and Andy Gill respectively. Canadian based Guyanese, Ray Chan-a-Sue defeated Mark Sealy for 3-1 for ninth place while Sherice MacDonald defeated Elizabeth Johnson and Rawle Jackson beat Craig Archer in straight games to win the ladies and Men’s plates respectively.
Full results were as follows (all Barbados players unless otherwise indicated):
Men’s Final:
# 3 Shawn Badrinath (Guyana) defeated # 1 Johan Bouquet (France) (3-2) 9/4 9/5 4/9 1/9 10/8 (78 min.)
Ladies Final:
# 2 Karen Meakins defeated # 1 Ruchika Kumar (Canada) (3-0) 9/7 9/1 9/3 (30 min.)
Men’s Third place:
# 2 Arthur Poupel (France) defeated # 4 Gavin Cumberbatch (3-0) 9/2 9/0 9/4 (22 min.)
Ladies Third place:
# 3 Karen Anderson (Jamaica) defeated # 4 Sonia Perkins (3-0) 9/4 9/4 9/6 (34 min.)
Men’s Fifth Place:
#6 Shawn Simpson defeated #5 Charlie Sonson (3-1) 5/9 9/4 9/4 10/8
Ladies Fifth Place:
#5 Andrea Goodridge defeated #6 Kathy Shuffler (3-0) 9/3 9/3 9/1
Men’s Seventh Place:
#8 Robert Fernandes (Guyana) defeated #7 Andy Gill (3-1) 0/9 9/5 9/6 9/6
Ladies Seventh Place:
#7 Lilianna White defeated #8 Gen Shim (Trinidad) (3-0) 10/8 9/0 9/5
Men’s Consolation Plate Final:
#11 Ray Chan-a-Sue (Guyana) defeated #10 Mark Sealy (3-1) 1/9 9/1 9/5 9/6
Men’s Plate Final:
Rawle Jackson defeated Craig Archer (3-0) 9/2 9/7 9/4
Ladies Plate Final:
Sherice MacDonald defeated Elizabeth Johnson (3-0) 10/9 9/0 9/7
Earlier morning matches leading into the finals were as follows:
Men’s Classic Plate Semi-finals:
Charlie Sonson (St. Lucia) defeated Andy Gill (3-0) 10/9 9/5 9/7
Shawn Simpson defeated Robert Fernandes (Guyana) (3-0) 10/9 10/8 10/8
Men’s Consolation Plate Semi-finals
Ray Chan-a-Sue (Guyana) defeated Bryant Cumberbatch (3-0) 9/6 9/0 9/3
Mark Sealy defeated Fabien Magne (France) (3-0) 9/3 9/2 9/3
Men’s Plate Semi-finals:
Craig Archer defeated Andre Donawa (3-1) 9/6 9/5 7/9 9/2
Rawle Jackson defeated David Foster (3-0) 9/3 9/2 9/4
Ladies Classic Plate Semi-finals:
Andrea Goodridge defeated Gen Shim (Trinidad) (3-0) 9/5 9/3 9/3
Kathy Shuffler (Guyana) defeated Lilianna White (3-1) 9/4 5/9 9/6 9/1
Ladies Plate Semi-finals:
Sherice MacDonald defeated Tracy Roett (3-2) 6/9 9/5 2/9 9/2 9/4
Elizabeth Johnson defeated Ayoni Bradshaw (3-0) 10/8 9/1 9/0
In the trophy presentation ceremony that followed, the recently elected President of the Barbados Squash Rackets Association (BSRA), Craig Archer, thanked the sponsor, Trident Insurance Company Ltd., as well as the management of the venue, the Barbados Squash Club, the tournament officials and administrators, the players, the spectators as well as the media for the excellent press coverage over the duration of the tournament.
The repeat champions, Shawn Badrinath and Karen Meakins both thanked the BSRA and Trident Insurance for putting on such an excellent event, while the losing Men’s finalist, Johan Bouquet, announced to the large audience that the hospitality he and his countrymen had received since they arrived in Barbados had been the warmest they had ever experienced on tour outside of France.
