On a busy Sunday of competitive play at the UWI Gymnasium Mona Bowl in Kingston, Jamaica, two underdog storylines converged to cap off the second edition of the Hubert Lawrence Memorial TT Classic, with Azizi Johnson of Wolmer’s Boys’ School and Gianna Lewis securing the men’s and women’s Open Singles crowns respectively. Both champions walked away with hard-earned victories made all the sweeter by past disappointments that had kept them from the top spot in major tournaments.
For Johnson, Sunday’s win represented long-awaited redemption. At the tournament’s inaugural 2025 staging, he was on track for a deep run before cramps and fatigue derailed his campaign against New York-based competitor Odingo Mitchell, leaving him empty-handed in the Open division. That result followed his 2024 victory in the “B” Singles bracket, a solid performance that nonetheless left him hungry for the top title.
Johnson faced a similarly tough test in this year’s Open Singles final against Logan Royes, dropping the opening set 9-11 before finding his rhythm. He clawed back to take the next two sets 11-9 and 11-5, then held off a late comeback from Royes to clinch the fourth set 12-10 and secure the championship.
On the women’s side, Lewis pulled off a stunning upset that broke a long-standing pattern against the person she knows best: her younger sister Tsenaye Lewis, the 2023 Jamaican national women’s singles champion. Gianna has turned in consistent strong results across local Jamaican tournaments in recent years, but had repeatedly fallen short in major finals, most often against her sister. To reach the championship match, she also defeated another top Jamaican talent, Keeara Whyte, who holds both the national women’s singles and Under-19 titles.
After closing out the win, an elated Gianna celebrated the milestone, telling reporters: “This is only the second time I’ve beaten her in a final!” while holding up two fingers to mark the rare victory.
In the “B” Open Singles division, Rudolph Sinclair of the Pembroke Hall Table Tennis Club claimed the AnyBet Hubert Lawrence Memorial crystal trophy after a hard-fought four-set win over UWI Games champion and national representative Chris Lyn, with final scores of 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 12-10. Sinclair’s path to the final required a dramatic comeback, after he fell behind teammate Sean Wallace two sets to zero before rallying to win 9-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7. For his part, Lyn also endured a grueling five-set semi-final against Conroy Henry, securing a 7-11, 12-10, 14-12, 19-17, 11-7 victory to advance to the title match.
The Hubert Lawrence Memorial TT Classic, first launched in 2025 with corporate support from gaming brand AnyBet, was created to honor the late Hubert Lawrence, a beloved Jamaican athletics broadcaster, analyst, and author who was also an accomplished competitive table tennis player. Today, it ranks among the largest single-day table tennis tournaments in the English-speaking Caribbean, and Sunday’s event drew a capacity crowd of spectators eager to cheer on the island’s rising and established table tennis talent.
Danielle Douglas, General Manager of Post to Post Betting Ltd, which operates AnyBet, highlighted the company’s ongoing commitment to the event and its core mission. “We are proud to support a tournament that honors Lawrence’s legacy, while promoting sports development and youth empowerment,” Douglas said. She added: “Table tennis is a sport that continues to showcase Jamaica’s competitive spirit and talent, and we hope to fuel its continued growth while reinforcing the values of discipline, teamwork, and healthy competition. This sponsorship also reflects our broader commitment to nurturing sporting excellence across disciplines while celebrating the talent, passion, and sportsmanship at the heart of this tournament, and the enduring legacy that inspires it.”