Clayton pipped in epic as heat takes its toll

But once again they were made to work extremely hard for their reward, this time by old rivals Jersey on a sweltering hot afternoon at the WER Joell Stadium in Hamilton.

Originally scheduled for 9 am, Jersey’s prolonged semi-final which finished shortly before midnight the day before saw the final pushed back to 3 pm, but that was then further delayed when the one cloud in the sky decided to drop a deluge onto the court at 2.45.

But the first rubber was worth the wait as Ogier took on Jersey’s young star Scott Clayton, a national champion at under-18 level and the number one seed for the men’s singles event in Bermuda. It turned out to be an epic.

Ogier took the initiative early on with a break in the fourth game, but the Jersey player broke back in the seventh before holding serve to level at 4-4.

The Guernseyman then held serve himself to pile the pressure on Clayton, and a double fault saw the teenager broken for the second time in the set as Ogier took the upper hand.

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