Thursday match
On Thursday the only match reported was between Jeff Fine and the fifth seed, Philip Reid. Jeff plays pretty regularly nowadays, and took the trouble to warm up for 30 minutes with some serving practice, which paid dividends. Philip is very fit and hits the ball very hard.
The match was much closer than I was expecting. Jeff mostly held serve, but Philip used his pace and stamina and retrieved a lot of Jeff’s drop shots and lobs to good effect. Philip won the match 7-5 6-4.
Friday matches
Two matches were successfully played today. Not surprisingly, the rest were rained off!!!
In the mixed, Bruce Rigal & Barbara Thomas took on the third seeds, Ed Fitzgerald & Sue Ehr. Bruce and Barbara have a consistent game, but not the same pace as Ed and Sue, who seems to be playing more consistently nowadays. Barbara had been playing in the rain the evening before, had developed a bit of a sniffle, and was not really on top form for the 10 am. start. And Bruce’s normally reliable serve was not firing on all four cylinders, as it would have had to in his doubles win with Aaron Watkins over the second-seeded Jeffs . It was always going to be tough anyway, but the challengers felt they didn’t get it together properly. Bruce and Barbara got a couple of games in the first set, including one on Ed’s serve, before he warmed up properly, but no more. Ed and Sue won 6-2 6-0.
Steve Yoo played James Lowe, the seventh seed, in the singles. It looks like Steve took his time to get into the match, as he won only 1 game in the first set. He won rather more games in the second set, but James won the match 6-1 6-4.
Richard Keep has had to withdraw due to work assignments in Germany next week. That is a shame as I was rather looking forward to seeing him play Philip Reid in the singles!
