CLARKS SUMMIT — Cierra Beck, Eamon Gibbons, Kiran Kumar, Diana Shields, and Diane Bailey were crowned singles champions in the Scranton Tennis Club Championships, Aug. 12-14.
Beck, an Abington Heights graduate, overcame a strong challenge from Abington Heights tennis coach Kelly Arp, winning 6-2, 7-6 (10-8) to repeat as the Women’s A Singles champion. To reach the final, Beck defeated Connie Weiss 6-1, 6-1, while Arp ousted Lauren Carroll, her top returning starter at Abington Heights, 6-1, 3-6, (10-7).
In Men’s A Singles action, Eamon Gibbons, of Clarks Summit, defeated Jamie Mamera 6-2, 6-2. The Wyoming Seminary standout avenged a loss to Mamera in last year’s Lackawanna County Open. In the semifinals, Gibbons came back from a set down to defeat 2nd-seeded Zac Lehman, 4-6, 6-4, (10-5), while Mamera upended top-seed John Weiss 6-4, 6-1.
Kumar was the Men’s B Singles champion with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Cyrus Torres. Kumar had a relatively easy time in his semifinal, defeating Rahul Yadav 6-1, 6-0, while Torres barely reached the final, edging John Shields 7-5, 4-6, (10-6).
Shields’ wife, Diana, had more success in the Women’s B Singles event, defeating up-and-coming junior Domenica Delayo 6-2, 6-3 in the final. Both finalists breezed in their semifinal matches. Shields ousted Maggie Hall. 6-0, 6-0, while Delayo gave up only one game in defeating Fatima Torres, 6-1, 6-0.
The Women’s 55 and Over Singles event ended with all three competitors having 1-1 records, after Diane Bailey edged Angie Kluss, 6-3, 6-4. By virtue of her victory, Bailey was crowned the champion, with 20 games won in the round robin competition, compared to 19 for Kluss and 17 for Aggie Izolt.
Kluss made up for her disappointment in the singles event by taking the Women’s A Doubles title with Judy Holland, winning a close match against Scranton Prep tennis coach Kathleen McKenna and Beck 7-5, 6-4. Earlier in the day, McKenna and Beck survived a tight contest with Arp and Carroll, winning 7-6 (9-7), 6-4. In the other semifinal, Kluss and Holland blanked Connie Weiss and Patti Ostroski, 6-0, 6-0.
In Men’s A Doubles competition, John Weiss and Paul Pugliese repeated as champions, coming on strong in the final two sets for a 5-7, 6-2, (10-3) victory over Mamera and Joe Bailey. In semifinal action, the two teams knocked out a pair of father-son duos, with Weiss and Pugliese defeating Ron and Zac Lehman, 6-3, 6-2, and Mamera and Bailey eliminating the team of Jim and Eamon Gibbons 6-3, 6-4.
John Weiss was tournament director, assisted by Burt Reese, pro Joe McNulty and Suzanne Spinelli.
