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18th Feburary 2010
MTA Heineken Tennis Open-an epic final
Anthony De Beauville

It was all Alberton Richelieu who was made to work for every point but at the end of a grueling encounter he scampered through the Centre Court stand to celebrate his first ever Heineken Tennis title with handshakes, while his opponent Kevin Deligny sat in his changeover chair, alone with his thoughts and knowledge that he had come so close to becoming the new Heineken champion at the St.Lucia Racquet Club located in Cap Estate late Friday evening..
Two points from victory, Deligny couldn’t pull it off, instead succumbing to the more experienced Richelieu 6 - 4, 3 - 6, 4 - 6 in a 2 hour plus test of wills that was the longest men’s final in a Heineken finals’ history and possibly the best ever played at that venue.
“I just want to say congratulations to Kevin,” Richelieu said afterward. “He’s a true champion and he deserves everything he gets, It was a pleasure playing you today.” said Richelieu to Kevin, “Kevin, you played unbelievably. Keep it up ... You’re going to come back and win it someday.”
It was the first time in a very long time that Richelieu played a classic match, one widely regarded as the greatest in history by some of the tennis pundits present on the evening. It was also a match in which Richelieu had to dig deep down and beat an opponent who played one of the greatest matches of his tennis career: Even in defeat, Kevin looked brilliant, winning the first set and appearing poised to put Richelieu away in quick time when he took the lead in the second-set 1 – 0, and one up in the contest.
From the offset, the momentum of the match swung from side to side like a ship caught in a storm. In the first set, Kevin’s depth and relentless pace of shot raged against Richelieu’s touch and variety resulting in copious break points. In a ding dong battle in the second set and 5 - 3 with two set points, Kevin produced a great drop volley to save the first and then constructed a brilliant point, resulting in a forehand approach and backhand volley winner to bring the game back to deuce to save the second.
 
 

Kevin broke back with an audacious drop volley that had the crowd on its feet.
In the following game, Richelieu matched Kevin shot for shot by producing deeper and more penetrating ground strokes. A gutsy movement forward with a convincing volley at the net, indeed, it was his intuitive awareness of when to move forward to finish the point which pegged him back level at 30 all in the next game, which he then went on to win with an impressive forehand hit on the rise, following a powerful first serve at deuce.
Richelieu opened the third set with another difficult hold of serve and followed with what appeared to be the beginnings of an impressive fight back, breaking Kevin in the second game. However, with the grace of what appears to be that of a ballet dancer Richelieu went on to pass Kevin at the net in the next point and went on to force an uncharacteristic double fault from the young man on break point.
From my vantage point Kervin appeared to have lost his way and ultimately lost him momentum midway into the third set to Richelieu, and when Richelieu took the lead it appeared that he was ready to win without too much trouble and that he did to emerge as the 2010 St.Lucia Racquet Club MTA Heineken champion.
Meanwhile, In the Men’s over 40’s final # 1 seed Colin Hunte lived up to all expectations by defeating Keith Grenda 6 - 3, 6 - 0 in a one sided affair and in the Men’s Open Doubles it was all Alberton Richelieu and Kevin Deligny defeating the Hunte brothers Colin and Trevor 6 - 2, 6 - 4.

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