JOHN and Daniel Azar captured the Group ‘A’ title at the inaugural staging of the 2020 Tennis Jamaica Invitational Charity Doubles Tennis Tournament held at Eric Bell Tennis Centre recently.

The father and son pair of John Azar Sr and Daniel Azar defeated the pair of John Azar Jr and Adam Harris in a hard-fought and exciting final 8-6 to clinch the title.

In their semi-finals the Azar pair beat Mario Campbell and Simon Casserly 8-3, while Azar Jr and Harris knocked out Katherine Dibbs and Adrian Infante 8-3 in the other semi-final.

Dr Malaika Masson and Rachel Christian were the champions of Group ‘C’ after defeating Corrine Clarke and Yvonne Brown 8-6 in the final.

Fred Redpart and Bobby Chandiram beat Mark Harris and Andrew Harris 6-3 to capture Group ‘B’.

John Azar Sr, the current president of Tennis Jamaica, thanked the sponsors, players and supporters for being a part of the charity event.

“It was a ‘Charity Doubles Tennis Tournament’ to purchase tablets, with the proceeds going towards our Junior Development Fund,” said Azar Sr.

Meanwhile, Dr Masson of the International Development Bank (IDB) from Washington, DC (USA), spoke on behalf of her partner Christian from Cari-Med, the title sponsor of the event.

“It’s the first time Christian and myself paired together, and also the first time we are competing as adults in a doubles tournament. We were not confident that we would have won,” said Dr Masson.

She added that women’s tennis is growing and that she was very proud to represent women in the sport. “I am looking forward again to play in the next doubles tournament,” said Dr Masson, who has resided in Jamaica for the past five years working with IDB.

Meanwhile, Tournament Director David Sanguinetti said all protocols were observed throughout the day, with everyone wearing masks and practising the social distancing that was strictly enforced at the facility.

He said the tournament was also a huge success, involving 31 teams broken into three groups. There were 12 teams in Group A, 13 in Group B — with one team having four players — and six teams in Group C.

According to Sanguinetti, the groups were broken down into teams of three and all teams guaranteed two matches played in a round robin format, with the winners advancing to the knockout stage.

Sanguinetti thanked all the sponsors who made it possible, Cari-Med, King Alarm, Caribbean Producers (Jamaica) Limited, Gabby’s Choice, WATA, Guardian Life, Power Aid and Tennis Jamaica.

Gregory Christian, business development manager of Cari-Med, thanked Tennis Jamaica for staging such a fantastic event that was well attended.

He has made a commitment to sponsor another doubles tournament in the near future.