IC Doubles Week Competition

Finals Day with Great Britain and Austria - Friday

Picture
When all was said and done, it came down to Great Britain playing Austria for the SG Private Banking Trophy.
Excerpted from Brent Stubbs, Senior Sports Reporter for The Tribune, published 15 January 2011:

The British won the Bahamas IC Tennis Week Doubles Tournament on Friday at Superclubs Breezes. In a battle of two undefeated teams, Great Britain prevailed with a hard fought 3-2 decision in their five-game series over Austria to cart off the prestigious SC Private Banking title.

In identical fashion, Mexico knocked off the Bahamas to clinch third place; Belgium blanked Germany 5-0 for fifth and the United States won seventh place over Barbados as the week-long tournament came to a close.

In their showdown, the team of Niall Sweeney and Diane Hill secured the win for Great Britian when they pulled off their mixed doubles with a 6-4, 6-2 decision over Austria's Bent Ingevold and Veronika Metzker-Buche. Great Britain was leading 2-1 at that point in the series.

"It was a very good team effort," said British captain Michael Dawe. "We got a good start with Mark Cox and Niall Sweeney. But we knew that it was going to be a very close match the rest of the way. We knew the Austrians were going to be pretty tough, having beaten the Bahamas the other night to get into the final. So we just had to work hard in every match."

Great Britain, who had a good tune-up playing against the local junior players on Sunday at the National Tennis Center, went through the tournament undefeated. Austria, who were also undefeated up to the championship series, had the match right in their grasp, but team captain Peter Lund said they just simply let it get away from them. "We lost the first match, which I was playing with Bent Ingevold," Lund pointed out. "Then we lost another men's doubles, which we should have won."

"The best team won. But we are glad to come out with second place. We can now celebrate."