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Tyler ready for tennis final showdown

Photo by Akil SimmonsTyler Smith will meet Isle of Man's Laura Feely in Friday's singles final.

Bermuda’s golden girl Tyler Smith will go for gold on Friday morning when she meets Isle of Man’s Laura Feely in the women’s singles final.Top seeded Smith has lived up to her ranking, playing some exciting tennis in the process to advance to the final with a straight sets 6-2, 6-3 win over Laura Moreno-Hernandez of Menorca, a Spanish Balearic island in the Mediterranean with a population of 94,000.Menorca had two women in the singles semi-finals but Moreno-Hernandez and her doubles partner Sandra Moll-Andreu had their hopes of an all-Menorca final dashed by Smith and Feely, who came from a set down to beat Moll-Andreu 4-6, 6-2 (10-4).Smith beat Moreno-Hernandez earlier in the week as Bermuda’s women won gold in the team event. Yesterday she kept the momentum going with another good performance.“Yeah, I thought I played well, I had a little bit of a tough time in the second set but I fought through it and pulled it out,” said the teenager. “The crowd did a lot and it keeps me going and in the second set I was down and they pumped me up and helped me a lot.“She is a good fighter and gets a lot of balls back but I already knew what I was up against. I’m playing good and as long as I do what I have to do I’ll be fine. Being humble is very, very important. I’ve adjusted pretty good to the heat.”Feely was happy to pull off victory against Moll-Andreu whom she remembers from two years ago. “I played her last time in the Island of Wight and she beat me in the match tie-break in the quarter-finals so I knew how she was going to play,” said the 19-year-old Feely who teamed up with Harris in an all-Isle of Man mixed doubles final which guaranteed another gold and silver for the country.“I played her (Moll-Andreu) on the hard court last time so I knew what her tactics were. It was tough out there and I had to work hard but I got there in the end.”Feely admits it will be tough again today when she takes on the local favourite.“It’s going to be tough, home crowd, but I’m going to have to blank that out and see what I can do. It’s been a good week, though.” Feely won a bronze in the team event in the Isle of Wight in 2011.The Isle of Man will also be represented in the men’s final following seventh seed Billy Harris’ surprisingly easy victory over third seeded Patrick Ogier of Guernsey, 6-0, 6-2. The result torpedoed Guernsey’s hopes of an all-Guernsey final after Dominic McLusky beat James Connelly of Jersey 2-6, 6-3 (10-5) in the other semi final.“I thought I played really well today, especially in the first set where I got a good start and carried on for that 6-0 lead,” said Harris, 18.“I think he might have been a little tired and a little nervous, maybe, and I took advantage of that. In the second set it was a really long game at one-all and I managed to break his serve.“I haven’t played him before but had seen him a couple of times before and so I didn’t really know what to expect. It’s nice to get to the final, last time I made it to the quarters so it’s nice to improve on that and hopefully get the gold tomorrow. The Island of Man are doing quite well in the tennis.”In doubles semi-final action later in the day, Bermuda went two-for-two with Tyler Smith and Erika Bové and David Thomas and Neal Towlson winning through to the finals. Smith and Bové beat Pauline Nordlund and Malin Ringbom of Aland 6-, 6-0 while Thomas and Towlson beat the highly regarded pair of Dominic McLusky and Patrick Ogier of Guernsey 6-3, 6-3 to keep Bermuda men on course for the gold medal.“They won the gold medal in the team event so we knew we had our work cut out for us,” said Thomas afterwards. “We stuck to what we do best and thankfully we were able to come out on top. Anytime you can go for the gold medal you want to put your best foot forward and I felt we did that just now and hopefully we can bring the gold medal home for Bermuda.“One of those guys is in the singles final tomorrow and the other lost in the semis today so they are just as competitive as we are and we know that from past competitions as well.”Towlson and Thomas proved to be a good team and now they are one win away from gold.“I feel good to be back out playing tennis again, the feeling is unreal right now,” said Towlson, the nephew of coach Ricky Mallory. “It feels amazing playing in our own country and definitely the crowd helps you so much. Everyone supports everyone, even if it’s 8.30 in the morning or 12 at night like it was on Sunday.”Losing out in the semis were Gavin Manders and Jensen Bascome who went down 6-2, 6-3 to Scott Clayton and James Collenny of Jersey while sisters Jacklyn and Tara Lambert were defeated in a tie-breaking heartbreaker 6-2, 5-7 (10-8) to Karen Faragher and Katie Tinkler of Isle of Man.