The cocky Davien “Force Ripe” Taylor proved his 2018 semi-final win over road tennis champion Julian “Michael Jackson” White was no fluke as he climaxed an opening night of the Barbados Cup at the Netball Stadium with an impressive 21-23, 21-10, 21-17 over White on Monday night.
Displaying his customary high level of confidence and attacking flair, Taylor threw off White’s sublime defence and master craft where the “World Boss” led him 17-12 in the opening game. Taylor locked at 18 and survived game points 18-20 and 19-20 to narrowly lose the first game.
Continuing his all out attack, Taylor carved up White in the second game holding the grandmaster on the pinnacle of a sow 20-9. Adding a blemish to the contest, Taylor blasted his serve into the net and a grateful White then hammered the next ball into the net as well with both players turning for the decider.
Taylor dominated that decider to put himself in position to advance to the semis and White in clear danger of bowing out as last night he was to meet the number one seed Mark “Venom” Griffith in the night capper. (KB)