Organizers of one of Barbados’ most anticipated annual sporting events, the Barbados Road Tennis Open (BRTO), have made a last-minute administrative correction that has reshaped the lead-up to this year’s tournament. In an official statement released this week, the BRTO planning committee confirmed that the official competition draw finalized on Wednesday, August 5, has been fully invalidated after a critical technical glitch was uncovered by tournament staff.
The error, which occurred during the manual entry of player registration data into the event’s digital seeding system, led to multiple competitors being incorrectly seeded in the initial draw that was revealed at the official tournament launch. Shawn Burke, chairman of the BRTO Planning Committee, explained that after a full review of the issue, organizers agreed that holding a new draw was the only fair outcome for all participating athletes and stakeholders. “This mistake was an unavoidable human error during data input, but we owe it to every registered player to get the tournament structure right from the start,” Burke noted in a press comment.
A new, corrected draw will now be conducted on Friday, August 7, at the Haggatt Hall headquarters of the Barbados Ministry of Sports and Community Empowerment. Burke emphasized that only athletes who successfully completed their registration by the strict July 31 deadline will be included in the revised seeding process, maintaining the tournament’s original eligibility rules.
For the 2025 edition of the open, Shakeem Nurse enters as the defending men’s singles champion, while Sheldene Walrond returns to defend her women’s singles title, a position she claimed at last year’s event. Burke extended a formal apology to all players, fans, and partners for the inconvenience caused by the error, noting that the committee has added extra verification steps to the new draw process to prevent a repeat of the issue.