Home|Sports|Major, Nottage advance to men’s finalSports
Simba FrenchSend an emailDecember 22, 2022 129 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
Kevin Major Jr. won his semifinal match quickly and was able to watch a set and a half of the other semifinal at the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association’s (BLTA) National Tennis Centre yesterday.
Both Major and Denali Nottage advanced to the final of the Giorgio Baldacci Open National Championships, and they will play in the final at 11 a.m. today.
Also scheduled for today is a rematch of last year’s women’s championship match between Sydney Clarke and Elana Mackey. That match gets underway at 9 a.m.
The wins for Major and Nottage in the semifinals mean that they both have booked their spots on the 2023 Davis Cup team. It will be Major’s seventh time on the Davis Cup team while Nottage will be making his debut.
Major, who was the 2019 men’s national champion, was brilliant in his match against veteran Marvin Rolle yesterday. He turned back Rolle in straight sets, 6-4 and 6-1.
Nottage, who is playing in his second Giorgio Baldacci Open National Championships, went down to the wire in a tight three-set match against Rodney Carey in an all-Grand Bahama semifinal match. Nottage struck first, winning the first set 7-6 (7-5). Carey won the second set 7-5. Nottage then bounced back and won the final set, 7-5.
Major said that it was tough playing against Rolle because of Rolle’s high tennis IQ (Intelligence Quotient).
“Playing Marvin is always tricky because his IQ is so high, so no matter how well I play, he knows how to counter, how to stay aggressive, and how to keep himself in the match. My job is to make sure he never felt comfortable or if he did feel comfortable, make him uncomfortable,” Major said.
Nottage was knocked out in the semifinals last year. This year, he said he has become more matured and was focused.
“It’s always good playing a top performer from The Bahamas like Rodney. It is always good to share the court with those type of players and just fight until the end like what I did today,” Nottage said.
The main goal for Nottage was to hold serve, he said. There were a couple of times when he was down love-30, but in the back of his head, he said he had to remember the plan was to hold serve. He will look to get in some rest after a three-hour match and prepare to play the number one seeded Major in the final.
Against Carey, Nottage said he dug down deep in the final game after going up 6-5 in the third set. He was serving in that final game and finished off Carey with an ace to punch his ticket to Davis Cup competition for The Bahamas.
“It’s a dream come true for every tennis athlete,” Nottage said. “You would want to represent your country, so now, I can say I am able to represent my country.”
Looking ahead to today’s match, Major kept it simple.
“I am looking to do the same thing I did today (yesterday) which is to take high percentage shots, have high percentage first serves, stay aggressive, stay calm and just fight,” Major said.
The tournament is sponsored by RMS Insurance Agents and Brokers and Fidelity Bank and Trust.