Margie Way left the Tennis Stadium moments before the 12.45 p.m. match which pitted her son Michael against Ricky Mallory for the men's A singles title of the Heineken Bermuda Open.

It's not that she couldn't bear to watch, she had a bridge game to play.

What she missed was a thriller that was inexorably in the cards for her son -- a winning hand that will long be remembered in local tennis.

Way defeated Mallory 6-4, 6-2 in an stirring final which featured sky-high intensity with enough smoke to start a forest fire.

And it set the stage for a re-match next month at Pomander Gate.

Yesterday, Mallory, who had previously said he might sit out tournaments over a seedings row, confirmed he would compete in the Paget tournament.

Way, who afterwards called the victory his biggest in Bermuda, kept coming at Mallory in waves. Mallory, the defending Open champion, was unable to find a knockout punch.

Each played a gritty and gutsy match and although Way drew first blood by winning the first game of the opening set with relative ease, Mallory stormed back with two aces to knot the score at a game apiece.

Way, who looked like he was on a mission, won the next two games to grab a 3-1 lead.

With the tension in the Stadium palpable, Mallory won the next two to tie the score at 3-3. But Way was brilliant in the seventh game, taking a 4-3 lead.

He took a 15-love lead in the eighth game as a result of a double fault by Mallory when the buzz on the court and the Stadium shifted toward a plea for linesmen because of close calls.

Mallory went on to tie the game at 4-4 and led the ninth 30-love before Way rebounded, helped by an ace, to lead 5-4. It was the game's version of an in-your-face slam dunk.

"He had 30-love on my serve and I won that game,'' said Way later. "That was the biggest turning point of the match.'' Way, who was nursing a sore left knee prior to the match, went on to capture eight of the next 10 games to sew up the title in an hour and 10 minutes.

Way has now taken the first two tournaments of 1994 (he won the All Bermuda Open last month) and in eight matches, all victories, has yet to drop a set.

"It was good, it was good to get the adrenalin going,'' Way said. The slimmed down righthander cried out a shrieking `yes' after the triumph. "It was closer than the score indicated, it was a good match,'' he said. "But I was getting tired out there so it was good to end it when I did.

"I just wanted to win that one pretty much more than any other match I've played down here, because of all the controversy that surrounded it and everything.'' The controversy erupted when Way was seeded number one prior to the tournament while Mallory, considering it a blow to his self-esteem and psyche, was ranked second.

It continued to swirl on Saturday, with several boorish fans riding Mallory unmercifully.

On the morning after his defeat Mallory played the match over again, a freeze-frame at a time. "I thought I could have attacked the net more,'' he said yesterday. "He (Way) played well.'' Things went better for Mallory later in the day when, with Steve Bean, he exacted his measure of revenge with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Michael and Brian Way to grab the men's double's title.

Teamed with his sister, Allison Towlson, the duo then defeated Jerome and Donna Bradshaw 7-5, 6-1 to win the mixed doubles title.

Earlier in the day, number one seed Donna Bradshaw survived a scare from number two Debbie Darrell to win 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4 and take the women's A singles title.

Bradshaw, winning her second straight event, also dropped her first set in six tournament matches this year, but hung on to overpower Darrell in the third set of a two-and-a-half hour marathon.

"I had my chances. I haven't really been playing this year, so to make the finals I think that was really terrific,'' said Darrell, the defending Open champion.

Said Bradshaw: "I felt in my mind, and I always want to think positive, that I wasn't going to lose the match. Debbie played well. I always have good matches with her. This time I won the first set, normally I lose it. I started making errors in the second set because Debbie started playing better.'' Bradshaw was suffering from pain in her right leg and at times looked like she was going to pull out of the third set.

"I twisted it (the leg), I don't know, I slipped or did something,'' she said. "I just couldn't push off on the serve and I needed my right leg.

Instead, I just tried to spin the ball in, just take a little pace off it.'' Number eight seed Mark Melvin upset top-ranked Hugh Barit 6-4, 6-1 for the men's B singles title in a rowdy match, while Laverne Jones and Allison Towlson topped Gill Butterfield and Donna Bradshaw 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 for the women's doubles crown. Earl Leader defeated arch-rival Oliver Bain 6-0, 6-2 in the senior men's singles showdown while Sheena Smith was winner of the women's B singles over Fiona Colston 7-6, 6-0.

Denise Kyme and Wendy Salvia sewed up the senior women's doubles title with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Juanita Allchin and Ellen Kelly.