Antoine ‘Lil Man’ Daniel clawed his way back to defeat Julian White on Wednesday in the semis.
Lil Man, Jackson thrill crowd in road tennis semis
Fri, 10/14/2016 - 12:00am
AN epic battle worthy of any final anywhere in the world was seen as Antoine ‘Lil Man’ Daniel and Julian ‘Michael Jackson’ White gave everyone present at the Monarchs of the Court semi-finals on Wednesday an outstanding show.
The opening two games of the best-of-five match left the crowd cheering, and each player showing respect for each other during the match.
Daniel gave his expected passing shots, but White was impressive as he was able to reach most of Daniel’s attempts and return them.
White also delivered some cracking winners of his own. Pushing Daniel deep and wide into his back hand, White would then power a forehand down the line, out of the reach of the outstretched Daniel.
Daniel’s normally lethal injections did not have the potency they usually have either, as White was seemingly able to read most of them and reach them in time to put them back on.
At one stage, Daniel was so impressed with the level at which White was playing, that he walked down the other end of the court to let him know. However, this seemingly broke White’s focus and Daniel was able to pull back.
The pivotal moment of the game came when Daniel was down 10-2 in the fourth game and White was leading 2-1 in the match. Daniel admitted that playing against a player such as White he would have been foolish not to be worried at this stage, but had made up in his mind that he was not giving up.
Daniel then changed his manner of play to what he called the ‘Drunken Style’ – which is a slower game – and much to the amazement of the spectators, he won that game and levelled the match at 2-2.
With the momentum clearly in Daniel’s favour, the deciding game was surprisingly one-sided after four previously close games.
Daniel went on to win the match 20-22, 25-23, 17-21, 22-20, 21-13.
The women’s semi-final saw Sheldene Waldron – the only player to defeat Kim Holder last year – advancing to the final when she crushed the hopes of Rachel Smith with a 19-21, 21-19, 21-18 victory.
The final of the Monarchs of the Court is slated for Saturday with Daniel facing off against defending champion Mark ‘Venom’ Griffith; and defending women’s champion Kim Holder will battle Sheldene Waldron.
(CG)