yesterday when the Newington, Connecticut, resident defeated King Van Nostrand 7-6 (12-10), 3-6, 6-2 to capture the men's singles 55 title in the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Club Invitational at Coral Beach Club.

The final, pitting the numbers one and two ranked players, saw Vieria gain sweet revenge for losing to the world's number one ranked player in his age bracket, almost 20 years ago. It took him three-and-a-half hours to achieve victory as all but nine of the 30 games played went to deuce.

The tie-break alone took 27 minutes.

Asked when he thought he had the match won, Vieria said it was during the third game of the final set. "That was when I took advantage of the only break point I had, to give me a cushion,'' he said.

"With a two-game lead at 4-2, I felt if we stayed on serve, I would eventually be serving for the match. But then I held for a 5-2 lead and broke for the match.'' In the Men's singles 65 final, second seed George Boyce defeated the Bob Brown 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 while Gill Butterfield and Alice Duff upset the top ranked American pair of Sandy Coooper and Yvonne Van Nostrand 6-1, 6-3 in the Ladies 40s doubles final.

Today's finals include the Men's Open singles between Steve Alger and Michael Way, plus the Ladies Open singles between top seed Kelly Holland and visitor Rosemarie Asch.

TENNIS