What began as a somewhat windy, sunny afternoon quickly turned into a raging storm on Saturday prompting the semi-final matches to move to West Ottawa for completion. And once the matches concluded, it was determined that the finals would be decided between a newcomer and the defending champion.
The first semi-final match took place between #1 seed and defending champion Grant Gibson and #14 seed Ryan Chan. The opening game could have changed the entire landscape of the match as Grant had to go to four deuces to hold his serve while fending off multiple break opportunities from Ryan. Grant would finally string several volley winners together and hold in the opening game. He would then pounce on Ryan’s next service game, breaking his serve and jumping out to a 3-0 early lead. Ryan would not falter though, hitting some tremendous serves in the fourth game of the set to hold and would stay stride for stride hoping for an opening on Grant’s serve again. The opening never came though, and after several impressive backhand topspin winners, Grant would break Ryan again late in the 1st set and win 6-2.
In the 2nd set, Ryan began charging the net as often as Grant had been doing during the match, smashing several overhead winners that Grant could not return. Not to be outdone, Grant’s serve and volley technique rarely ever faltered and had near perfect service games to go up 4-3 in the 2nd set. It was in the eighth game that a few forced errors due to low shots at the net by Grant gave him a late service break. Despite a valiant effort by Ryan, Grant proved to be too strong on his serve in the final game, hitting some impressive defensive volleys when the return of service was flying back at him. He would win the final service game and advance to his 6th championship final with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ryan.
Immediately following the first semi-final, the 2nd semi-final took place between #2 Austin Flannigan and #9 Tarek Samhan. Early on, Tarek began punishing Austin with several powerful forehand winners. In one instance, Tarek advanced at the net and finished off the point with a swinging forehand winner that looked like a blur to those watching in attendance. Tarek would jump out quickly and win the first set 6-1. The 2nd set in many ways was like the first set as Tarek exemplified the definition of ruthless aggression with his forehand, in some rallies, not allowing Austin to setup his defensive strategy. The strategy paid off as Tarek never looked back and would advance to the Championship final, defeating Austin 6-1, 6-0.
In another notable, congratulations to this year’s Open Draw Consolation Winner Demyan Plakhov, who was victorious after Frank Zhang was unable to continue, trailing 6-3 after the first set.
This leads to Championship Sunday for both the Women’s and Open Draw. Sheila Windle will be looking to become the 2nd two-time champion with a victory tomorrow. Her opponent, making her 2nd PLMT appearance is Jane Yang, who captured the Consolation Women’s Draw last year. The match begins (weather permitted) at (*see update).
This will be followed by the Open Draw Championship Finals as #1 Grant Gibson will be looking to distance himself from previous champions with a fourth title (no other champion has more than two in the 13-year history of the tournament). Standing in his way is Tarek Samhan, looking to become the highest seed to ever capture the championship since Kyle Malone won it as a #7 seed back in 2015. This match is slated to begin at (*see update).
*Update:
Please be advised that due to inclement weather in the forecast for the majority of the day, the Open and Women’s Championship matches have been moved to tomorrow evening at 6:00 PM. We will also delay the announcement of the winners of the raffle draw until following the matches tomorrow.
Hope to see many of you there as we close out our 13th tournament!
In addition, following the championship matches, we will announce the winners of the raffle draw. We will be taking purchases of the tickets up until the end of the first set of the Open Draw Championship Final. Tickets are $5 for 3 tickets and $10 for 8 tickets. Below are the prizes:
- Two sets of four tickets to an Ottawa Senators game during the 2022-2023 season
- Three Montana’s gift packages including a $25 gift certificate
- $200 gift certificate to Le Nordik Spa
- $200 gift card from Home Depot
- Two Gift Packages from Milestone’s and Kelsey’s amounting to $100 in gift certificates
- Two $50 gift certificates from The Keg
- $100 gift card from Winners and Home Sense
- $100 gift card from Best Buy
In the event of inclement weather, the matches will not be moved to West Ottawa as we would like members to watch the matches in person. As a result, if there is rain throughout the afternoon, tomorrow’s matches will be moved to Monday evening at 6:00 PM. We hope for better weather tomorrow in order to complete the final chapter of the 2022 PLMT!
Patrick LeBlanc
Tournament Coordinator
Barrhaven Tennis Club