Eldon Daniels won his battle against fatigue to lift three titles in a day at the Heineken Open at the Tennis Stadium on Saturday.

The 44-year-old started the day with a three-set victory over Martin Zolnai in the senior men's singles final, then defeated Eugene Simmons to take the men's A singles championship and followed that by partnering Mark Cordeiro to triumph in the men's doubles final.

The day's other noteable achiever was 15-year-old unseeded Zarah DeSilva, who won her first major domestic senior title by clinching the women's A singles in three sets against Laverne Stowe.

Daniels was a victim of his own success on three fronts and started Saturday feeling tired after spending a five-hour stint on court the night before which ended at 10.30 p.m.

After beating fellow veteran Simmons, Daniels said: "It's not easy to play three important matches back to back, especially when I was on court for more than five hours on Friday night.

"If they (the organisers) know a certain person is going to make it to certain events, they should schedule matches to give him some recovery time.'' Daniels started slowly in the seniors' final, losing the first set to Zolnai 6-1. But he recovered to win the next two sets 6-2, 6-4.

After a half-hour break, he started the men's A final in similar fashion, breezing through the first set 6-1, dominating at the net and moving around the court quicker than Simmons.

Daniels appeared to have caught his opponent cold, but Simmons warmed up in a tight second set.

When Daniels broke Simmons' serve to take a 5-4 lead and leave him serving for the match, the tension and fatigue started to show.

At 30-30, Daniels was foot-faulted on his first serve and gave the line judge a long, hard stare and a few uncomplimentary words.

His serve was then broken and when Simmons held to take a 6-5 lead, Daniels hurled his racket to the ground in frustration and then hit a ball high into the stand.

The set eventually went to a tiebreaker and Daniels pulled himself back together to win it 7-3 and with it, the match.

Daniels agreed that the absence of defending champion Ricky Mallory and his three Davis Cup team-mates, plus Michael Way, had raised every player's hopes of the title.

But he added: "I feel like I can stay with any player in Bermuda. I feel a bit more physically fit this year and I'm stroking the ball better.

"It's particularly satisfying to win this title as a senior.'' In the doubles final, Daniels and Cordeiro defeated Zolnai and Roger Marshall 7-6, 6-0.

Daniels will be looking for more trophies in this week's Bacardi Seniors tournament, which started yesterday at Pomander Gate.

In the ladies final, DeSilva, who had destroyed top seed Gill Butterfield 6-1, 6-1 in the semi-final, found Stowe a tougher proposition.

The first set went to a tiebreaker after DeSilva had twice failed to serve it out. The youngster's nerves were apparent as she collapsed from 4-2 up to lose the tiebreaker 7-4.

But as she found her range with her blistering, double-fisted groundstrokes, hit with remarkable power for a girl so slender in build, and ironed out the errors which had lost the first set, she prevailed 6-3, 6-3 in the next two sets.

"I was nervous from the start, but I had it in my head that I was not going to lose, whatever,'' said DeSilva after the victory in what she called "the biggest match of my life''.

She added that she had been helped by the support of her watching family -- father Zane, mother Joanne and brother Zane junior -- and that she could not have done it without the help of her coach Steve Bean.

The youngster, who showed the benefits of two weeks spent at an International Tennis Federation training camp last year, celebrated with a night out with her family before flying back yesterday to Florida, where she studies at Saddlebrook High School.

The ladies B title went to DeSilva's best friend Danielle Downey who beat Crystal Lambert 6-2, 6-1.

And Stowe did manage to get her hands on a trophy by partnering Tara Lambert to victory in the ladies doubles final, 7-5, 6-3 against Gill Butterfield and Heidi Boyle.

Photos by Ras Mykkal Veteran finalists: Eldon Daniels (left) won three titles in a day at the Heineken Open on Saturday, including a 6-1, 7-6 men's A singles final victory over Eugene Simmons (right).