The originally-unscheduled match today was the outstanding Men’s Singles Semi-final between the 6th seed Richard King, and the 3rd seed Stephen Cooke. Neither wanted to play the match on Thursday on a slightly wet hard court, so chose to defer until the Friday instead, to play it on grass.
The match was watched by around 15 spectators, some with distinct allegiances!
Both have very strong games, but Stephen is the more consistent and accurate. Richard has a heavier serve, though both players are used to the level of pace you get at men’s first team level. But Richard also put a few lower, shorter, balls into the net which Stephen would probably have whipped up over the net.
Richard played some good tennis in the first set, but made a few mistakes. And he just had to applaud a number of Stephen’s shots where Stephen only just reached a wide ball, but nevertheless managed to hit a precisely angled cross court winner to leave Richard stranded at the net. Stephen won the set 6-2.
The second set was a very different matter. The games went with serve until 2 all, then Stephen broke and held for a 4-2 lead. On Richard’s next service game he was under extreme pressure, facing a number of break points for a much shorter set, but obtained his own game point and closed it out. Stephen held his serve.
At 3-5 down Richard played a good game to hold, leaving Stephen to serve out the match, which he did.
So Stephen, seeded 3, now faces Marcio Sugui, seeded 2, in the Final.
I wasn’t allowed to post the photo of a topless Richard changing from his sweaty tennis shirt into the more comfortable top seen here.
