There were six matches played today and one walkover. Winning margins tended not to be as overwhelming as yesterday
In the first Men’s Doubles, Luca Fioretti & Bernardo Pistorelli played Yannick Tandy & Bruce Rigal. Luca can be a very tricky leftie player, and hits a lot with his partner Bernardo. Meanwhile, Bruce Rigal’s suggested strategy for winning doubles match is to play with a good partner. In this particular case, Sultan likely set up the partnership. Yannick does not play for West Heath, but also is a member at Paddington, probably playing for a team there.
Bruce was hitting consistently, but mostly leaving Yannick to hit the winners, which worked well. Luca and Bernardo won a couple of games in each set, but could not avoid being on the wrong end of some services breaks. Yannick & Bruce won 6-2 6-2.
In the second Men’s Doubles, Dan Dalton & Matt Wasser played the 4th seeds Sultan Gangji & Richard Keep. Matt, a leftie, plays pretty regularly and has certainly improved over time. Dan has to fit tennis around his children. However, Sultan and Richard are an established first team pair.
Exactly the same fixture occurred in the first round of the 2025 Men’s Doubles. I’ll keep you in suspense as to the result.
In the first set, Sultan and Richard were just too much for Dan and Matt to get any traction in terms of games. In the second set they managed a couple, for a 6-0 6-2 victory to Richard & Sultan.
And in 2025? Richard and Sultan won 6-0 6-3. But Dan and Matt should probably put this down to random luck, not a widening gulf. But yet …
… examining the photo in a little detail, one might wonder whether Sultan might derive additional power and better timing from using a larger racket than most, and that this might account for the larger victory margin this year.
Of course, he is not the only person to consider this route, though some might find it an unwieldy choice, if taken too far. Double handed serve, anyone?
Also in the MD Greg Meyer & Alan Braier gave a walkover to Greg Lim & James Li-Tremble.
In the first of three Mixed matches, Bruce Rigal & Kaya Widuch played Matt Wasser & Sophia Melas. This time wasn’t so lucky for Bruce, because Matt and Sophia beat them 6-3 6-1.
In the second mixed match, Dan Angel & Margaux Valarche took on the former (most recently 2021 plus other years) champions Greg Lim & Marjan Denis. Margaux has also won the event with Jasper Tressider.
Dan and Margaux are consistent, mobile and very tactically aware, while Greg and Marjan are more experienced, and Greg is harder hitting.
In the first set, Greg & Marjan got a service break to go 5-3 up, but then Greg got broken and the pair lost the resulting tie break. But in the second set, Margaux and Dan got the upper hand, retaining serve (under some pressure) and managing to break, winning the match 7-6 6-2.
Two more match reports to come Thursday morning!
