DAY 1 REPORT - Wed 21st April

As the Holiday Snacks T & T Open kicked off yesterday, all the qualifying matches went according to plan, but not without excitement. Mens Qualifying Round 1:

Varune Mungal def Nicholas Scott 12/10, 11/9, 5/11, 5/11, 11/9
Leonel Sorrillo def Barry Bibby 6/11, 11/3, 11/3, 10/12, 11/6
Jacob Gillezeau def Osei James 11/6, 12/10, 11/9 (played Tuesday)

2 first-timers to tournaments, Barry Bibby and Nicholas Scott made good first impressions but weren't experienced enough to pull out the win in the 5th game losing to Leonel Sorrillo and Varune Mungal respectively.

Mens Qualifying Round 2:

1/8. Julian Chin def Varune Mungal 11/3, 11/3, 11/2
1/8. Nku Patrick def Godfrey Wei 11/9, 11/3, 11/6
1/8. Duncan Smart def Wolfram Nothnagel 11/6, 11/2, 11/8
1/8. Chayse McQuan def Leonel Sorrillo 11/5, 11/6, 11/7
1/8. Brandon DeMontrichard def Chris Joachim 11/2, 11/4, 11/4
1/8. Ryan Bayne def Mario Berment 11/8, 9/11, 11/3, 9/11, 11/4
1/8. Mandela Patrick def Stephen Rodriguez 11/6, 11/6, 11/7
1/8. Peter Pirtheesing def Jacob Gillezeau w/o

Bayne vs Berment
Each of the 8 seeded players in the qualifying draw advance to the main draw as expected, but Ryan Bayne was put to the test with the unorthodox style of Cascadia player, Mario Berment. In the final game, Bayne stepped up to secure his place among the top 16... but who would his next opponent be?

NUTS OF FATE: This year, the winners from the qualifying round would determine their own fate. Rather than predetermine the qualifiers randomly into the main draw, the tournament committee came up with a new twist on an idea that had been used in the past.
As the first winning player came off the court, he would proceed to the lobby area where there were 8 packs of Holiday Snacks nuts on the table. On the back of the packet, was a strip to be peeled off and this would reveal the name of one of the 8 main draw seeds. This would continue with each player until all the nuts were gone. So he each player would randomly pick his own opponent from the remaining pile.

In order of picking the following qualifiers were matched up to the following seeds:

Duncan Smart vs #1 Colin Ramasra
Ryan Bayne vs #7 Marc Pontifex
Mandela Patrick vs #8 Karen Meakins
Nku Patrick vs #5 Fabian Goodridge
Peter Pirtheesingh vs #3 Bryant Cumberbatch
Brandon DeMontrichard vs #2 Shawn Simpson
Chayse McQuan vs #4 Ryan Abraham
Julian Chin vs #6 Richard Glanfield

Although Julian had no choice by the time he emerged, he still had to go through the motion to peel off the name of his next opponent. Julian is a former Guyanese National player but was placed in the qualifying round as he has been out of the sport for a year. However, he could be a dark horse and his match against Richard Glanfield should be the most unpredictable of the Round of 16.