Johnson opens title defence

Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

Defending champion Damion Johnson, who is also the reigning national champion, will be among the players on show today when the main competition in the third renewal of the Iberostar Tennis Classic gets into full gear at the Iberostar Resorts in Montego Bay.

Johnson, who defeated Elvis Henry 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 and 7-1 to win last year's men's Open title, will hit centre court at 1 p.m. to start his title defence against Oshane Wright, who earned qualification for the main draw via yesterday's special qualifying tournament.

The tournament, which was originally slated to start today, was brought forward by a day to facilitate yesterday's hastily arranged qualifying event, which became necessary because of the large number of entries for the men's Open, which was reduced from 38 to 32 contestants.

"We could not handle all the entries on our original schedule so we had to find a creative way to reduce the numbers," said tournament referee Simon Casserly.