One title was settled, while three other intriguing finals were set for today as the Bermuda ITF Junior Open reached towards its conclusion at the WER Joell Stadium yesterday.

The North American twosome of Nicole Kiefer and Shirley Liang were made to battle yesterday, needing a match tiebreaker to finally quell the challenge of No 2 seeded pair Kyra Foster and Petra Miszczak, another mixture of United States and Canada pairing and second seeded to Kiefer and Liang.

Kiefer, from the US, and Liang, a Canadian who had earlier lost her singles match, took much of the first set to gel, but once on the same page proved a little too much for their opponents.

The opening set went to Foster and Miszczak 6-3 as they used powerful ground strokes and well-placed volleying to overpower the more finesse style of Kiefer and Liang. However, the second set unveiled a more determined top seeded pair, with Kiefer and Liang cruising 6-2 and followed by sprinting out in front early in the match tie-break, winding up in the end 3-6, 6-2, 10-7 winners.

“Today was a good day,” said Kiefer. “We had a good comeback because the other girls were playing really well.”

Meanwhile, Liang, who had to regroup after being upset 6-4, 6-1 by Rebecca Lynn, of the US, as the favoured third seed in the singles draw, was beaming as she spoke of her joy in seizing the doubles as consolation.

“Singles wasn’t a good day for me, but I’m definitely happy with my doubles,” Liang said.

“We were down a set and made a comeback, especially in the third set tie-break where we were up 4-1 and they came back to tie us; it was scary for a while.”

Also earlier an exciting boys’ final was set up as third seed Christopher Heck, of Canada, produced a dazzling display of power tennis to halt the seeming destined march of American Spencer Brachman, 6-4, 6-3.

Yet this day would belong to the more northerner, even as he and the others were forced to wait out the inclement weather for all of the morning and into the early afternoon before the courts dried enough to commence action

“I served pretty well and was consistent, I also hit some good volleys,” Heck said.

“My early matches were as dominant as Spencer’s and he’s a good player and I knew it wouldn’t be easy.”

Jeffrey Fradkin awaits Heck in the final after a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Britain’s Matthew Doe, who was game but outclassed by the big serving American and No 2 seed, making him a slight favourite for the final.

Still Heck appeared undeterred, noting a familiarity with his upcoming opponent that he hopes can be used to his advantage.

“I’ve known Jeffrey for a while now, he’s a good player so I look forward to playing in the finals, it should be fun,” he said.

As for Fradkin, he was satisfied with his ability to adjust to tough conditions at the stadium with gusty winds prevailing throughout and making consistent stroke-making difficult

Still he was able to take out Doe in workmanlike fashion with a solid first serve and better positioning for shots.

“My serve is a pretty biog weapon for me and my endurance is pretty high which is what I think has helped push me through this tournament,” Fradkin said.

The evening ended with Bermuda’s own Trey Mallory teaming with Doe to make it through to the boys’ doubles final with a hard-fought, tense semi-final against Sebastien Collard and Williams Kasten from Canada and the US respectively, winning 7-6, 6-4.

They will next face the daunting task of overcoming Bachman and Fradkin in the final, after the latter pair downed a spent Heck and his partner Ellis Short, of the US, 6-3, 6-3.