Month: August 2021

The first set was very close up to 5 all.  But then Rebecca and Barbara broke serve to take it 7-5.  In the second set, Elena and Katie stepped up their game, and applied the pressure from the net, winning it 6-2 and preparing the way for a Champions Tie Break.  This replaces a deciding set, and is used in all doubles matches in the tournament.

The Champions Tie Break is first to ten points, but to win, you also need to be two points in front.  From something like 7 all, the score reach 8 all, 9 all, 10 all then 11 all.  It could have gone either way, but Elena and Katie did not blink first, and took the last two points in a nerve-wracking ending to win the match 5-7 6-2 [13-11].

Katie’s explanation for the transformation change in form in the doubles is that she now had a duty to her partner not to dwell on any mistakes and play one point at a time, a motivation lacking in the singles.  It certainly did the trick.

In the first of the ladies’ doubles semi-finals to be played, the second being scheduled for Friday evening, the fourth seeds, Moira Duncan & Lesley South were up against top seeds Elena Valarche & Katie Baston. Lesley and Moira are both consistent. Moira has a good forehand, and Lesley finds some super angles. Elena has very aggressive net play, and Katie has good accuracy and pace. However Moira and Lesley didn’t give up, and created some good openings to win points. This gave them a couple of games in each set. But Elena and Katie were too strong most of the time, and won the match 6-2 6-2.

But Philip was growing in consistency as the match went on, which put pressure on Greg. Perhaps due to a lack of singles play since the last tournament, specifically, singles play on grass, Greg missed the occasional opportunity for a drop shot winner off a shorter ball from Philip, and couldn’t eliminate the errors, especially from balls with lower bounces. Philip took the second set 6-3.

The singles events are best of three tie-break sets. The final set was similar to the second set, with Philip playing the more consistent tennis, and Greg missing the occasional shot. Although, it was a little closer, Philip won the set 6-4 for a 3-6 6-3 6-4 victory.

On the Friday evening, under a gloomy but dry sky, a small band of determined watchers came to see the third ladies’ doubles seeds , Barbara Thomas & Rebecca Vaughan, play the second seeds, Marjan Denis & Sue Ehr on grass. All the players hit the ball hard, but the soil under the grass is still a little moist, and lowish bounces made it difficult to hit with a lot of pace. Marjan and Sue went to the net wherever possible, and it was difficult to lob over them, so they put away a number of volleys.

Sue throws the ball up low on her slice leftie serve, which keeps the bounce low and makes it tricky to get a clean hit on it. Early on, Rebecca had some difficulty in reading Sue’s serve, but got the hang of it as the match went on, taking it on the backhand to allow room for an angled, cross court return.

Sue and Marjan broke, but Barbara and Rebecca pulled it back, and themselves broke again, allowing them to win the first set 6-4. The tennis got better as the match went on. Everyone got more used to the conditions and opponents, and could put more pace on the ball without driving it out. In the second set matters reached 4 all before Sue was broken and she and Marjan could not break back. Barbara and Rebecca also won the second set 6-4 for an overall 6-4 6-4 victory.

On grass court 1, in the second of the ladies singles semi-finals, the fourth seed, Marjan Denis, was out to get as many games as possible from the top seed, Katie Baston. The conditions were not ideal, with the occasional low bounce still around and the yellow and blinding sun shining right down the court from the clubhouse end (as can be seen in the photo), making it very difficult to see anything from the Croftway end, let alone see the lines when returning or serving. Though generally consistent and accurate, Marjan had not played singles for a year or so. Katie has a strong and consistent game, but is relatively new to the occasional low bounces on grass court 1.

In the first set, Marjan struggled with the light, the bounces and Katie’s game, and Katie took the first set 6-0. However, in the second set Marjan came to terms with all these factors and played much better, at a level more approaching what you would expect from her. She won four games. Katie won the match 6-0 6-4 to schedule a meeting with the second seed, Rebecca Vaughan, in the final on Saturday.

By the start of the men’s doubles semi-final on court 1, there was less of a problem with glare from the position of the sun, because all the court was in the shade. Jonathan Bell & Steve Yoo played the top seeds, Sultan Gangji & Greg Lim. Jonathan and Steve can play pretty well, but aren’t an established doubles partnership, while Sultan and Greg are match-hardened from playing together in first team matches on the West Heath grass. Further, Sultan can rely on Greg to do more than his fair share of running around and hitting with pace to put away any loose balls, leaving Sultan to put away anything within reach with volleys, lobs or dropshots. Anything loose from the challengers was duly punished. During the match, Jonathan and Steve did break once, but they couldn’t guarantee to hold their own serves consistently. Greg and Sultan won the match 6-2 6-2.

Tuesday matches

Five matches were played today.

In a daytime match, Jonathan Bell took on the top seed, Marcio Sugui. Jonathan is consistent with a good serve and groundstrokes. Marcio is a tricky leftie opponent, who can generate a lot of pace, and uses a quite a bit of spin on his leftie, left-veering serves. But Marcio has been playing too much, and is also training for an advanced coaching qualification, so has had some elbow problems.

Jonathan must have done quite well in the first set, as he got four games, but fared less well in the second set, as Marco won 6-4 6-2.

On court 1, the fourth seeds, Barry Adamson & Elena Valarche were challenging the top seeds Jen Ehr & Sultan Gangji. Barry has a good serve when he is on form. He hit some good serves in the first game, in which he held, but thereafter must have been overawed by the opposition, perhaps forcing the serve too much to get extra pace and ended up missing a lot of serves. Elena usually establishes a dominant position at the net from which to hit winning volleys, but couldn’t get there most of the time. Jen and Sultan were in imperious form, and won the match 6-1 6-0.

On court 1, the third singles seed, Elena Valarche, played the second seed Rebecca Vaughan. Unlike the previous mixed, Elena frequently got to the net, and won a number of points from there. She also employed a low serve which left Rebecca struggling to reach it to return it. Rebecca didn’t seem accustomed to Elena’s approach to singles and took a little while to work out how to counter it. She probably also wasn’t counting on the ball staying so low, as the ground below the dry grass was still slightly moist from the rain in the early hours of the morning, so Elena won a number of points from short balls which just never came up. However, Rebecca got her passing shot going and made only the occasional unforced error, winning the first set 6-3.

In the second set, Rebecca became more dominant as she denied Elena a lot of chances to come in or to hit volleys to hit at the net. Rebecca won the match 6-3 6-1.

The main entertainment of the evening was the first clash of seeds on court 4 between the seventh seed, James Low, and the second seed Greg Lim. This match contained a lot of high quality tennis where one player had to manoeuvre for advantage and often take some risk to win the point – it generally wasn’t going to be given away on an unforced error on the slower hard courts.

Although the court surface started off wet, the players didn’t seem unduly phased by this, and were willing to chase balls all over the court. Apparently James has been playing quite a bit of singles recently, and he was pretty accurate in his placement, while also seeming to choose good moments to drop the ball short for Greg to chase, which often allowed James to hit a passing shot down the line into the corner. James also has the accuracy to punish any short balls which Greg gave him. Greg played very consistently, and always had the possibility of a big injection of pace with a flat stroke to hit a winner, provided he had time to get his feet lined up on the shot, and his footwork was very good while rallying. Greg also has a fast enough serve, which must have had enough disguise, to hit one or two aces against James, but not regularly.

In the first set, Greg’s error rate, though low, under pressure was higher than normal, and James put on the pressure when he could, to take the set 6-4.

In the second set the games seemed to be even more hard fought. Greg was always looking for the opportunity to hit a flat winner down the lines or crosscourt, into the corners, but James normally retrieved these well. Greg also hit quite a few accurate, deep balls which touched the inside of the baseline, and would normally have been winners, but James generally was able to return these with accuracy. However, Greg made fewer errors than before, and, despite an early hold, James found himself losing the set 6-1.

At one set all, James thought they might then get away with playing a deciding Champions Tie Break. But Marjan Denis, joint tournament referee, laid down the law that singles matches had to be decided by the best of three tie-break sets.

In the deciding set, James took an early 2-0 lead, and came within a point of making it 3-0. However, Greg saw himself staring into the barrel, became pretty determined at this point, and stepped up the pace of his shots to either force more errors from James, or to create more opportunities for Greg to hit winners. A number of games still went to deuce, but Greg had enough of an edge to take the third set 6-2 and the match 4-6 6-1 6-2. Congratulations to both players for a very high quality, entertaining match played in an excellent spirit.

Eugene Belin & Penny Isaacs played the fourth seeds Barry Adamson & Elena Valarche. Penny makes very few mistakes, though Eugene can be less consistent. Elena just likes to get to the net as fast as possible to despatch volley winners. Barry has a fast serve [and a tendency to try to hit passing shots down the line if he can, from playing against him] and served consistently. Elena and Barry won the first set 6-1. In the second set the seeds were 4-1 up, and things weren’t looking too good for the challengers. Penny changed tactics and started lobbing (presumably with Elena at the net) which worked well up until 4 all, but then the challengers got broken and lost the set. Elena and Barry won the match 6-1 6-4.

On the far hard court, there was a men’s doubles between Matt Wasser & Eugene Belin, and Jasper Tresidder & Joseph Rigal. Jasper and Joseph have a lot of pace on most strokes between them, though this often comes with a number of unforced errors. Matt and Eugene put up a good fight, but were outgunned. Jasper and Joseph won 6-1 6-1.

The pair now face Joseph’s father Bruce, playing with Aaron Watkins for what could well be a fascinating needle match!

On grass court 1, Pavel Markiewicz & Moira Duncan played Charles Rubinstein & Eloise Wedgwood in the mixed. Pavel is new to grass, and has some strong groundstrokes and serves. But though showing good potential on the surface, Pavel can be inconsistent, with a number of errors thrown in. Moira is consistent, with a strong forehand. Eloise is relatively new to grass, but has been playing quite a bit of singles on the hard courts. Charles is a wily customer, perhaps having learned his craft from Lesley South, and expert in the angled soft shots. On grass, he tends to position himself on the service line and mainly volley from there, which works very well unless opponents take specific measures to counter it.

Since Eloise was playing today with the very consistent and reliable Charles, she grew into this match, chasing balls all over the court, hitting some very clean strokes, and clearly very much enjoying herself. The match was relatively close, but Charles and Eloise kept up the pressure and made fewer mistakes in the end, to take it 6-4 6-4.