Teenagers Morgan Lightbourne and David Thomas, playing the match of their young lives, pulled off one of the biggest tennis upsets in recent years when they clawed their way to a 6-0, 5-7, 6-3 victory over top seeds Laverne Stowe and Sammy Maybury in the Heineken Open at the WER Joell Stadium.

Lightbourne and Thomas, taking full advantage of Maybury and Stowe?s notoriously slow start, took the first set in just 22 minutes.

But by then Maybury had warmed up and Stowe had got her confidence back, and they proceeded to show the youngsters a thing or two about clutch play.

Maybury was like a cat with a tennis racquet attached to its tail, all over the court returning shots from every angle. His play was so majestic that it caught the young pair by surprise and for long periods in the second set even they appeared to become spectators

Although the second set was a tight contest, Lightbourne lost a couple of crucial points and with them went her confidence.

?We both played lousy,? admitted Lightbourne, ?but when the chips were down we came through.?

Stowe and Maybury finished off the second set when Lightbourne lost her service for the second time. The only difference this time was the fact that she gave away all four points. ?That was the game that gave them the second set,? she said. ?My game really stunk, but both of us were playing bad.?

But into the third and deciding set the two youngsters slowly edged back on top, starting from the third game.

Stowe opened by holding her serve and breaking Thomas for a 2-0 lead. However, for only the second time during the contest, Maybury, with the chance to really put pressure on his opponents, lost his serve. Lightbourne held to level at 2-2 and when Stowe was broken to give the youngsters a 3-2 lead, the writing was on the wall.

The crunch points came in the ninth game when Stowe was serving. She was quickly down 0-30 but Maybury was not quite ready to throw in the towel as he ran down a half volley by Thomas deep to the forehand court and hit a pinpoint forehand down the line that left Lightbourne looking in awe.

Maybury followed that up with an even more brilliant shot as he made a winning return to Thomas? powerful smash.

But after Lightbourne held for a 5-3 lead the pressure was on Stowe to save the match. That didn?t happen. After going down 0-30, she and Maybury came back to 30-30 but a mishit gave the youngsters one match point and when Stowe volleyed a Thomas smash long, it was game, set and match.

Thomas had earlier in the day beaten Sylvan Girard 6-0, 6-0 in a superb display of power and accuracy.

In another marathon contest Jan Jarmula used his experience to outlast young Jordan Cunningham 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 in an acrimonious match that resulted in the tournament referee having to settle a dispute.

One other marathon saw Mike Musson turn the tables on Sean O?Connell 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, while James Keyes surprised Mackenzie Bean 6-4, 6-3.

Meanwhile, Andy Bray continued his warm-up for the Small Island Games this summer when he moved into the quarter-finals with a straight sets 6-0, 6-0 victory over Ben Lau. He will now face his stiffest test to date when he takes on the hard hitting teenager Romar Douglas in the semi-finals.