NATIONAL Under-16 girls champion Shantal Blackwood and her mentor Gordon Edwards yesterday captured the ATL Autohaus Volkswagen Junior/Mentor Tennis Classic title at the Liguanea Club in New Kingston.

In the final which lasted over and hour, Blackwood and Edwards came from a set down to beat Simon Levy and his partner Nelton Forsythe 5-7, 6-2 and 7-3 in the tie-breaker.

Levy and Forsythe came from two games down in the first set to take it 7-5.

Blackwood and Edwards then came from a game down in the second set to win five straight games to go up 5-1 in the second.

Levy, the Pan Caribbean All Jamaica Junior Under-14 title holder and Forsythe broke Blackwood and Edwards' service putting up a fight to take back the seventh game before Blackwood and Edwards broke back to take the set 6-2 and take the match into a tie breaker, which they won 7-3.

"I'm happy we came back even though at the beginning of the second set we broke down, but we came back and won the tie-breaker," Blackwood told the Observer.

"They were the better team (but) overall we played well, unfortunately we didn't play well enough to beat them," Levy conceded.

Earlier in the day, Blackwood and Edwards advanced to the final of the tournament following an 8-5 victory over youngster Peter Mahfood and his mentor Marcus Malcolm in the semi-finals.

Levy and Forsythe had earlier defeated Antonio Rizza playing with his uncle David Shirley 8-1 to set up the clash.

The two-day Junior/Mentor Tennis tournament was the brainchild of local tennis coach and national director of junior development Lockett McGregor, who started the programme two years ago.

McGregor added that he was pleased with how the tournament was able to bridge barriers as an inner-city Tennis Jamaica scholarship student (Blackwood) was partnered with the manager of the Liguanea Club while Levy was able to pair up with an attorney.

"So you couldn't have a better mix than that for a final," he said.

The winners and runners-up got trophies and caps courtesy of sponsors ATL Autohaus and Hi-Lyte Sports Drink.