Don’t forget to sign up in the Clubhouse for the Gourmet Dinners next week, Monday to Thursday, plus the Finals Day BBQ on Saturday. Details in Monday’s match report or in an email sent to everyone.
After Monday’s marathon set of 8 matches, on Tuesday there were only 5 and a half matches played – 2 and a half x Men’s Singles, 2 x Men’s Doubles, and 1 x Mixed Doubles.
Firstly the Men’s Singles:-
The half match was between Marc Reid and Dan Angel. The first set went to Dan 6-3, but Marc got injured and had to retire.
During the day, Ashish Nair played Joe Rigal, the 7th seed. Ashish got one game in the first set, but that was all. Joe won 6-1 6-0.
In the evening, Kerry Karageorgis played Alex Vallmajor, the 8th seed. Kerry dragged himself away from his holiday where he had been receiving regular tennis coaching, just to play this and another tournament match, leaving his family to continue holidaying.
Alex was brought up to play tennis on the clay courts of Spain, so is super consistent and mainly uses topspin shots, with good placement – everyone’s nightmare in a hard court match. This match was on grass, however. Kerry fancied he could get a few games.
Most of the points worked out that Alex would slowly get the better of the ground stroke exchanges until either Kerry made a mistake, or Alex could manoeuvre him into a position where Alex hit a winner into the open court.
In a game near the end of the second set, Kerry served and put up stiff opposition. There were something like a dozen deuces, and Kerry had around 6 game points, but Alex smothered the server advantage when receiving on the Ad side, though it also took him some time to get both the Deuce and Ad points together.
The other noteworthy incident was when Kerry’s mobile phone fell out of his pocket during play! It should probably count as some sort of hindrance, but I think Alex won the point anyway.
The final result was Alex winning by a double bagel.
And now the Men’s Doubles:-
In a late afternoon match, Matt Wasser & Dan Dalton fought against the 4th seeds, Sultan Gangji & Richard Keep.
Matt and Dan were somewhat overawed by playing a couple of first team players, and took some time to get used to the pace of the match. Neither were they serving or returning well in the first set. So Sultan and Richard took it 6-0.
But in the second set the lower ranked pair relaxed more and started to play their own tennis. Dan served much better and deservedly the pair won both his service games. Matt’s serve picked up at the end, but it was too late because of the earlier break. Sultan and Richard won the match 6-0 6-3.
Normally I would crop the photos, to get a better view of the players, but this one is such an appealing shot of the (well more than) centenarian Clubhouse in all its glory. It is worth pointing out that one of the players is obscuring the foxhole on the front grass bank leading to the walkway.
The faded green paint and the wonky and missing boards really make it, don’t you think?
The other Men’s Doubles was in the evening between Geoff Isaacs & Jason Yung, and the top seeds and 2024 Champions, Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair. Geoff’s long standing Men’s Doubles partner, Gideon Stone, isn’t able to partner Geoff any more, so Geoff teamed up with the enthusiastic, new and younger Brazilian player, Jason Yung.
Geoff and Jason played some very decent points. Geoff used his tactical nous to hit a few winners where neither Logan nor Stephen could reach. Jason threw himself about the court to try to retrieve the less reachable shots from Logan and Stephen. For one game in the first set and a couple of games in the second set, Geoff and Jason put together enough points to take the game, but the rest of the time, Stephen and Logan were generally in control, with Logan’s serve particularly difficult to guess (does he himself know where it is going?) Stephen and Logan won 6-1 6-2.
Another late match of the evening was the Mixed Doubles between Eugen Belin & Moira Duncan, and Olly Turner and Jane Boyle. Since Olly is the club singles champion, it took Eugene and Moira most of the first set to get used to Olly’s pace, reach and mobility, but they did take one game.
In the second set, Eugene’s serve sharpened up, and matters were even until 3 games all, to the excitement of the challengers. But then Olly and Jane broke, to give themselves a 6-1 6-3 victory.
