Trey Mallory, Bermuda’s lone remaining warrior at the Bermuda ITF Junior Open was felled at the final hurdle along with doubles partner Matthew Doe, of Great Britain, against American pair Spencer Brachman and Jeffrey Fradkin, going down 6-4, 6-4 at WER Joell Stadium in the boys’ doubles final.

Still buoyed after beating Sebastien Collard and William Kasten in a tense match the evening before, Mallory and Doe found their final opponents a little beyond reach and, despite fighting hard, they could not quite combat the big serve, ground strokes and pinpoint volleying of the top-rated pair.

“When they were receiving, they took more advantage of the break-point opportunities, which never allowed us to gain much momentum,” explained Mallory after the match.

“It was pretty hard here at this tournament and I was happy to be able to make it as far as the doubles final. Hopefully I can do better in the singles as well next year.

“I’ll now be back to training and looking forward to the next tournament.”

To the victors went the crystal trophy, with the Governor, John Rankin, doing the honours.

For Fradkin the win earned him the “double” of both singles and doubles titles after he had downed Christopher Heck earlier in the singles final. And he showed little wear and tear from a week of high-quality matches through which he was the most dominant player on offer.

Coming in as the event’s second seed in singles, he had No 1-seeded Spencer Brachman on his side and it was always going to take a sustained uphill charge for anyone to overcome the pair.

“It’s a good feeling just coming out here and taking both titles, it was a long week and everyone played well, but it’s good to have both,” said Fradkin, still appearing fresh after two matches. “We were the No 1 seeds in the doubles, so we were expected to do well. In the singles tournament the top seed lost, I saw an opportunity and took it.”

Brachman, who was upset by Christopher Heck in the semi-finals, was pleased to yet come away with a significant prize.

“Today we played the bigger points better, were able to stay really positive and we pulled it out at the end, luckily,” he said. “I had a tough match in the semis, I struggled with my shoulder but he played very well under the windy conditions to win.”

Fradkin is headed to Peru and other points in South America to spend some time on the clay courts, while Brachman is looking forward to getting back home.

Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association vice-president and national tennis director Ricky Mallory expressed pleasure at the quality and results of the tournament.

He said: “I thought it was a great tournament, the level of play was extraordinary. We had some top-ranked players here and you would have seen the quality today among the females with a great girls final.

“The reason we do these events is for local players that are unable to travel abroad through the summer to be able to have this level of competition to play against and match up against them and see where their games are at.

“It’s just too bad that we can’t put on more of these events because of a lack of sponsors and other forms of funding.

“The locals competed well, even though some lost in the first round. They were still right there toe-to-toe.”

Mallory added the BLTA is looking for sponsors to aid in the goal of hosting a Futures-calibre event, the stepping stone tour to the Challengers, and ultimately the ATP World or WTA tours.