Mari Alido prepares to serve against the doubles partner of Anne Greenwood and Sherwin Modoc. Her partner was Anthony Spenser and they needed a third set one point tie breaker to pull out a 2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (7-1) win. Photo>Dean "The Sportsman" Greenaway

TORTOLA—Former champion Dion Anselm got a surprise test from a new comer, in Sunday night’s opener of the First Caribbean International Bank BVI closed Tennis tournament’s Men’s “A” singles, at the Tortola sports Club in Pasea. The tournament runs through Saturday, when the champions will be crowned.

Anselm advanced after overcoming Barbados’ Damon Wilson who recently moved to the territory, 6-3, 6-4. “He was challenged,” noted Tortola Sports Club Tennis captain Humphrey Leue who organized the event. “Certainly, that’s not something that Dion is used to in the early rounds. He normally gets challenged in the later rounds. But, I think its something he appreciated by getting a test early. It was a very good match. It was definitely a crowd pleaser.”

Leue said he was very pleased with the opening day start, as all matches started on time. Rains on Monday afternoon delayed the start of matches, which Leue called a setback. “We’ve managed to get in some of the games that had to be postponed, but we’ll probably have to reschedule some of Tuesday’s matches and see how they go on into Wednesday, so that everyone will get to play,” he said. “Hopefully, the weather will be steady as we go forward.”

Other opening day matches saw Kareem Stoutt downing Andy Stanbury, 6-0, 6-4, while Terence Gumbs defeated Brian Stone, 6-1, 6-4 in another “'B” match. On the women’s side, Sally Rochester overpowered junior player Julia Oeseburg, 6-1, 6-0. Heather Chapman stopped another promising junior, Alexia Alleyne, 6-1, 6-3.  Linda Romney-Leue downed  Anne Greenwood in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0.

The Mixed Doubles duo of Antony Spenser and Mara Alido, needed a third set one-point tiebreaker to overhaul Sherwin Modoc and Anne Greenwood,  2-6, 6-2, 1-0 (7-1). The team of Curtis Davis and Roxie Romney were too strong for Terence Stoutt and Lori Amory, racing to a  6-1, 6-0 triumph.

Ronney Sweeney and Annette Collins had a hard fought 7-5, 6-3 victory over Daniel Boisvert and Paola Heras to close the opening day's play.