The draws are here. The rules are here. Tournament reports are below, most recent first.
Here is the schedule for Finals Day.
The Gourmet Dinners are over, but there is still the Finals Day Tea and Finals Day Barbecue to come on Saturday 25 July.
In case you are wondering what “Gourmet” might have meant, here’s Lesley South’s menu for Thursday 23rd July, the last, and grand finale, of the Gourmet Dinners.
This was yet another sunny day bringing out the spectators. Numbers were high – probably up on last year, likely due to Posy Frederick appearing in both Ladies finals and bringing a dozen outside supporters with her to cheer her on. Apparently they all enjoyed the experience!
This was a very close but swingy match between James Li-Tremble, one of the four 5th seeds, and Stephen Cooke, top seed and 2025 Men’s Singles Champion (and 2025 triple crown winner). In his path to the final, James had already despatched Marcio Sugui (2nd seed, last won in 2023, 2021 and 202), and Logan Mair (another 5th seed).
Greg Lim umpired the match, supported by a set of lines persons of varying levels of concentration and audibility!
The match was hard hitting, and to a very fine standard of tennis, especially the first set, with both players able to hit accurately and powerfully off both wings, and with power serves. But neither took advantage of the occasional drop shot opportunity.
The first set was particularly close, with the score reaching 6 all to set the stage for a 7 point set tie break. James got an early start in this, but allowed Stephen to catch up and take it 7-5.
In the second set, Stephen’s energy and concentration waned after the efforts and pressure of the first set tie break. Once Stephen got broken he didn’t strongly contest the rest of the set, preferring to save his energy for the inevitable deciding set, but thus giving James additional confidence. James took the set 6-1.
But in the third set, Stephen restored his focus, and it was another tight set with little to choose between them. Stephen said he never felt confident in the second set, even when he was a break up, as James was always capable of breaking. Perhaps of significance, on a few points, James tried to force a little extra pace, and overhitting, resulting in him putting the ball out, to Stephen’s relief. A small margin, maybe, but something had to decide between these two strong players in an excellent match. Stephen won the set 6-4 and the match 7-6⁵ 1-6 6-4.
Of note is that Stephen won 14 games (counting the 7-5 tie break as one game), while James won 16 games, but lost the match. Such is tennis!
This took place between Posy Frederick, unseeded, who took out Becca Vaughan (2nd seed) and Lizzie Johnson, the 4th seed.
The umpire was Marjan Denis.
Both have similar games, with a lot of topspin and air on the ground strokes. Lizzie is the harder hitting, and a little more accurate. In particular, Lizzie seemed to be able to hit closer to the baseline with fewer errors. Posy has a strong net game when she got opportunities to approach.
The first set was very tight, but Lizzie just had the upper hand, taking it 6-4.
In the second set, Posy worked hard, and broke to get 5-2 up. But she couldn’t maintain the advantage. Some of this was due to Lizzie’s topspin lobs (but with Posy at the back of the court), which landed just inside the baseline. Posy did not want to hit balls going out. But she then found herself trying, but failing, to hit balls 2/3rds of the way up the high back fence, or prevented from returning the lobs by the bank at the clubhouse end. Possible solutions might have included a smash or volley, from just inside the baseline, which would have taken time away from Lizzie. Posy also approached the net a few times, but if the approach wasn’t perfect, Lizzie would pass her. Lizzie made few mistakes, either in shots or tactics.
Thus Lizzie reclaimed the break in the second set to take it to 5 all, then broke again to win the set 7-5 for a 6-4 7-5 victory.
This took place between Greg Lim & James Li-Tremble, the second seeds, and Logan Mair & Stephen Cooke, the top seeds and 2025 winners. The umpire was Joe Rigal.
This was a repeat of the 2025 final won by Logan and Stephen 2-6 6-2 [10-8], so a close match was expected.
James and Stephen had already contested the Men’s Singles Final, which Stephen won in 3 sets.
This was another match of high quality tennis, where small lapses could make a big difference.
There had been some speculation as to whether James superb returning of Logan’s serve in their Men’s Singles semi-final, won by James, would put Logan under a lot more pressure than before, when serving in the Doubles final. However, Logan did not lose a service game during normal set play.
The match was very tight. In the first set, Logan and Stephen gained a slight edge, eventually taking the set 6-3. Greg felt he was below par in this set, attributed to (ably) umpiring the three sets of the Men’s Singles Final in the sun for nearly a couple of hours beforehand. Singles finalists also in the Doubles will be pretty tired by the start of the Doubles, but, at least in this case, it was one player from each side (James and Stephen).
In the second set, Greg played better. Some breaks were exchanged and the score reached 5 all. But then Stephen was broken and Greg and James won the set 7-5, setting up a deciding 10 point match tie break.
In the 10 point match tie break, Greg and James were ahead when Greg had a chance to pass down his right hand line to cement the mini-break, but the ball went 3 inches wide. Spurred by this, Logan and Stephen were hoping momentum was with them, but their opponents begged to differ. A few tense points later the set and match was won [10-8] by Greg and James for a 3-6 7-5 [10-8] victory. This was the reverse match tie break score to that of the 2025 final, which was 2-6 6-2 [10-8] to Logan and Stephen. Tennis is tight at the top!
This took place between Alex Reyner & Posy Frederick, the top seeds and 2024 Champions, and Jen Ananda-Rajan & Lizzie Johnson, the second seeds. The umpire (who fills in the match record) was Becca Vaughan.
Posy and Lizzie were previously up against each other in the Ladies’ Singles Final, which Lizzie won. For the Ladies’ Doubles, they were respectively joined by two big servers, and flatter hitters in Alex and Jen. In doubles, the net of the players was likely to come more into play.
In the first set, Jen and Lizzy had a slight edge and took the set 6-3. But they seemed to grow into the game in the second set, making it harder for Alex and Posy to make a significant impact on the score. Jen and Lizzy won the second set 6-1 and the match 6-3 6-1.
An excellent Finals Day Tea was served as soon as the three set Men’s Singles Final was over. Spectators nowadays have no stamina for watching four or more sets! Also, Stephen, James, Lizzie and Posy needed the break after their singles.
Thank you to everyone who contributed.
This was split into two parts, with the trophies for the two Singles matches and the Mixed Doubles presented before the two Doubles matches were played.
The Mixed trophy was presented.
Here are the winners and runners up of the Singles and Mixed.
After the Doubles were completed, the Doubles trophies were presented (see the individual events). Here are almost all the winners and runners up of all events.
Jen’s one year old, Jesse, isn’t quite at the level of doubles yet. But he already likes dropping tennis balls, and had great fun moving one of them between two different trophies
Stephen Cooke did it last year, but could not repeat it. The 2026 Triple Crown Winner of the tournament was Lizzie Johnson who won all three of her events. Here she is with her doubles partners and all three of the trophies.
More than 40 people attended the evening barbecue, which was enjoyed by all.
This has been one of the most enjoyable and well attended tournaments, with some real surprises in the results.
Thank you all for your attention, and I look forward to reporting again on the 2027 Tournament.
A beaming Lesley South closed off the 2026 Gourmet Dinners with an extensive, tasty and professionally cooked Vietnamese meal.
Many thanks to all the Gourmet chefs for feeding us so well this week, ensuring everyone was in excellent spirits – with more of that from Sultan and his rosé?
Sultan’s speech of thanks, also letting us know about the EGM to approve the new clubhouse plans, was short and to the point! So a good time was had by all.
Of course, the mood was mainly set by the excellent tennis throughout.
On grass court 1, in one Men’s Singles semi-finals, Alex Vallmajor, one of four equal 5th seeds, challenged Stephen Cooke, the top seed and reigning champion. Alex is very mobile and consistent and hits all his ground strokes with topspin, as befits someone brought up on European clay courts! Alex generally makes few mistakes, but doesn’t have the pace which Stephen can generate, especially on the serve. Stephen is also very consistent, but has an extra option of going for winners on many shots.
By choice, Alex would have played the match on a hard court, but that is not permitted during the second week of the tournament, if the grass is playable. He believes grass introduces an extra element of the chance of a bad bounce, which constraints which shots you can sensibly go for.
Alex competed strongly in the first set, in which there were a number of lengthy rallies, but Stephen mostly had the answers and was able to take the set 6-3. Alex tried a few things in the second set, but it became increasingly clear none of them were working as Stephen won the set 6-0 for a 6-3 6-0 victory into the final.
In the Men’s Singles semi-final on grass court 2, James Li-Tremble, another of the four equal 5th seeds, was hoping to get the better of Logan Mair, the third seed. James has excellent ground strokes and service return, and can put pressure on an opponent. Logan can similarly hit hard, and can normally rely on his heavy first serve to obtain a weak return from an opponent.
In this match, Logan did not consistently get his first serve in, which he needed to do to keep up the pressure on James. It may have been because of pressure from James’ return of Logan’s second serve, though it could also have been that this was just “one of those days” for Logan. So there were too many missed first serves and double faults from Logan, and some missed ground strokes on attempted winners too.
Meanwhile, James was rather more consistent, and heavy hitting.
In the first set, Logan was broken, had chances to break back, but couldn’t take them. James won the set 6-3..
In the second set, Logan just couldn’t get enough first serves in to provide a platform to take on James. Logan won two games, to give James a 6-3 6-2 victory.
There are thus two schools of thought as to what might happen on Logan’s serve in the Men’s Doubles final on Saturday, where Logan (and Stephen Cooke) will again be pitted again against James (and Greg Lim). Will James similarly be able to pressure Logan’s serve because of James hard hitting returns? Or will the pressure be off Logan’s first serve because a) only half of them will be to James anyway, and b) James is constrained to hitting returns to Logan’s serve into the smaller area from which Logan has just served, or giving Stephen a chance to hit a volley (not usually recommended). We all look forward to finding out!
The completion of the second Mixed Doubles semi-final followed. Sultan Gangji & Jen Ananda-Rajan, had to resume from 6⁵-7 3-5 down to the 4th seeds, the unseeded pair of Margaux Valarche & Dan Angle.
After extensive warm ups, play resumed with Jen serving, and she won this vital game after a couple of scares. Dan was then serving for the match. Sultan and Jen must have been under too much pressure, because they missed the return on most of Dan’s serves, allowing Dan to wrap up the game to love, and Dan and Margaux to win the match 7-6⁵ 6-4 to take their place in the subsequent final.
The Mixed Doubles Final was umpired by Greg Lim and featured Olly Turner & Lizzie Johnson, the 3rd seeds, against Dan Angel & Margaux Valarche, who were unseeded. However, in their path to the final, Dan & Margaux had despatched Greg Lim & Marjan Denis, unseeded former winners, the 2nd seeds Joe Rigal & Becca Vaughan, and the 4th seeds Sultan Gangji & Jen Ananda-Rajan.
Dan and Margaux are very consistent, and fast about the court but perhaps not as hard hitting as Olly, who is a leftie. Lizzie is very consistent and rarely made a mistake. Dan and Margaux got to most things, but couldn’t necessarily get the ball past Olly and Lizzie.
Olly played on the right, which makes it easier to poach at the right hand side of the net on the ad points (your racket hand is closer to the middle of the net). Olly did successfully poach at times, but Dan and Margaux were wise to the possibility, and there seemed to be at least an equal number of points where Olly got passed down the line on his right, when he moved too soon or his intentions were not disguised enough. When not at the net, a few times, Olly successfully hit a highly angled pick up from wide, short balls, which travelled almost parallel to the net before dropping in on the other side of it, just out of reach the opposing net player. He missed one or two of these as well.
Both sides maintained a lot of sideways sways and short moves at the net, to cast doubt into receivers minds as to whether the net player was going for a poach or not. With the exception of Olly, the answer was generally not.
Lizzie made few mistakes and often covered for Olly.
In the first set, Dan and Margaux started well, but got broken and could not get back the break, for a 6-3 set to Olly and Lizzie. In the second set, Olly & Lizzie seemed to have the tactics sussed out, and it was less of a battle, with Olly & Lizzie winning it 6-0 to give them the title 6-3 6-0.
The Mixed Trophy will be presented on Final’s Day, on Saturday.
The question on a number of minds right now is whether Lizzie can take the Triple Crown by winning both of her remaining events – the Ladies’ Singles against Posy Frederick, and the Ladies’ Doubles, playing with Jen Ananda-Rajan against Posy Frederick (again) and Alex Reyner.
See you all on Saturday, for the other Finals.
Moira Duncan served a tasty Lamb Tagine, while Marjan Denis provided filled apricots for dessert.
There were five matches played.
In the first Ladies’ Singles semi-final, Posy Frederick played Becca Vaughan, the second seed and champion in 2021. Posy has strong topspin ground strokes on both sides, which she uses to move an opponent around and to pin them to the back of the court. Becca has a good all court game, once it gets going. Neither plays a great deal of singles.
In the first set, Becca started slowly, and Posy had most of the games her own way. Posy won it 6-0.
In the second set, Becca played better, and Posy was not so dominant. Becca was hitting winners and it turned into more of a war of attrition. So Posy had to put more physical effort into the points to win them, and thus made more mistakes, but still won the set 6-4 for a 6-0 6-4 victory, somewhat exhausted. That was the same score as in the previous round, where she defeated Jen Ananda-Rajan, the third seed.
In the other Ladies’ Singles semi-final, Lizzie Johnson, the fourth seed, took on Alex Reyner, the top seed. Alex has a strong game, with a hard hitting serve (and smash) and good groundstrokes, and is lethal at the net. Lizzie is a good all rounder who likely to keep the ball in play and put pressure on opponents to make errors. She has excellent topspin ground strokes off both wings, with the ability to vary the depth accurately. She plays a lot of singles in mixed leagues at Coolhurst, and is very used to the pace which some men can generate on serve and groundstrokes. So she has the skills to handle Alex’s pace. And Lizzie seems to be super fit, perhaps from all the singles matches.
Generally, Lizzie tried to hit 3/4 depth topspin strokes. If Alex came in, Lizzie seemed to have plenty of time to create an accurate top spin lob over Alex’s head. If the lob was too short, Alex put away some spectacular smashes. But most rallies were pretty long. Alex was tired at the end, but Lizzie seemed prepared to run all day, having also played a, perhaps less demanding, Mixed Doubles completion set.
Many games reached deuce, but Lizzie seemed adept a getting the upper hand on the key points. The net of this was a 6-2 6-1 win for Lizzie.
Two Men’s Doubles semi-finals followed. In the first, Sultan Gangji & Richard Keep, 4th seeds, played against Greg Lim & James Li-Tremble, the second seeds and runners up in a tight final last year.
Richard has booming serves and groundstrokes, but is a little error prone. Sultan previously used to partner with Greg Lim, and they last won the title together in 2021, with Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair winning it the last three years. Sultan now thinks he is getting older and a little slower than before, so, in 2025 he suggested to Greg that he should instead partner with James Li-Tremble, to have a better chance of de-throning Stephen & Logan. Indeed, in 2025 the final was decided between Stephen & Logan and Greg & James, only by a 10-8 match tie break, the first two sets having been 2-6 6-2. So Sultan does have a point.
Greg can hit the ball very hard, and normally it goes in too, except against Alex Vallmajor in the Singles quarter final. James has a very strong game, and we will have to see how he gets on against Logan Mair in the Singles semi final.
Sultan and Richard played some excellent points, with Richard in particular hitting one or two impressive winners. But they couldn’t consistently hold serve against Greg and James in either set, and the result was a 6-2 6-2 victory to Greg and James.
For those who prefer just to look at the pictures here, instead of reading the full match reports, we agreed it would make it easier to guess the result if Greg & James had their rackets up, while Richard & Sultan had their rackets down.
In the other Men’s Doubles semi-final, Olly Turner & Joe Rigal, the 3rd seeds, were challenging the supremacy of Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair, the top seeds, who have taken the title for the past three years.
Joe, and Olly (a leftie) can both hit the ball very hard, and Olly’s speciality is poaching at the net. But they aren’t quite as battle hardened and consistent as Stephen and Logan, who have played together in the first team for some years now. Logan disputes my description, on another day, of Richard Keep’s serve as higher speed than his, though we won’t get a definitive rating without a radar speed gun. But all three of Stephen, Logan and Richard are up there in service speed. Logan can disguise many of his shots, so the direction is far more of a surprise. Stephen is tall and can cover the court very quickly, while he also has an excellent serve and ground strokes. But, all in all, there isn’t a lot in it between the two pairs.
The first set went 6-3 to Stephen and Logan. In the second set, breaks were traded to reach 5 games all, but then Stephen and Logan forced a break to be able to take the match 6-3 7-5.
It is going to be an even tighter final with Greg Lim & James Li-Tremble.
The first Mixed doubles semi-final completion took place on grass court 2 before the Men’s Doubles semi-finals. Olly Turner & Lizzie Johnson, the 3rd seeds, stood at 5-7 6-3 against Yannick Tandy & Mart Chojnowska. None of the players wanted to resume after yesterday’s efforts, only to play a 10 point match tie break, so agreed to play a full third, tie break set.
In the event, Olly and Lizzie got off to the faster start. Olly’s interceptions, and Lizzie’s handling of Yannick’s pace, seemed to be the difference, and Olly and Lizzie took the set 6-2, for a 5-7 6-3 6-2 victory into the Final on Thursday.
Brian Coffey served some delicious Mediterranean chicken (assisted by Lillian, his wife), and Sasha provided cheesecake for dessert.
There were five matches played today, though neither of the two, highly-competitive, Mixed Doubles semi-finals finished!!
In the Men’s Singles, Joe Rigal, one of four fifth equal seeds, was matched in the quarter finals against Stephen Cooke, the top seed and 2025 Champion. Both hit the ball very hard, but Stephen has the height advantage, and is more consistent. Both are very mobile, and both tried to drop shot the opponent at times. But Stephen has the longer legs, which seemingly allowed him to get to short balls he really had no right to get to. Joseph played very well, but struggled to break Stephen’s booming serve (which was made more difficult by Stephen’s height advantage).
In both sets, the score reached 2-3 with no breaks, with Joseph on serve. But at this business end of each set, Stephen kept on the pressure and Joe could not hold serve once thereafter, so Stephen won both sets 6-2 6-2. Stephen’s victory was effectively due to being able to perform better on the big games and points.
The other Men’s singles quarter final played today was between Logan Mair, one of the four equal 5th seeds, and Richard Keep, the 3rd seed. Richard is a leftie, and has some bigger shots than Logan, particularly on the booming leftie slice serve, but is less consistent. Logan has a big, heavy first serve, which doesn’t always go in, and can otherwise direct the ball on the serve with awkward spin. He also can disguise his shots. But give Richard a ball in his hitting zone, with Logan at the net, and Richard will generally pass Logan.
In the first set, Logan had the edge, and maintained his focus to win the set 6-3.
In the second set, Logan broke Richard, but started to feel the pressure when serving for the set and match, allowing Richard to equalise to 6 games all. Richard was then up for the subsequent tie break, while Logan still seemed to be regretting the lost chances (not advisable) on his last service game. So Richard made haste to take the tie break too.
In the deciding set, Logan gave himself a fresh mental start and focused more on knuckling down to beat Richard. While Richard hit some very good serves and winners, he also made errors, and Logan capitalised to take the last set 6-3 and the match 6-3 6⁵-7 6-4.
In the outstanding Ladies’ Singles quarter final, Lucy Fletcher played Becca Vaughan, the second seed and 2024 and 2021 Champion. Lucy is a determined new member who doesn’t make many mistakes, and has to be beaten – she doesn’t conveniently beat herself for you. Becca plays for the ladies’ first team and has good strokes and plenty of experience of matches.
Lucy played consistently, and often forced errors from Becca, but Becca was generally in control of the match, able to work the angles to hit a winner or force an error from Lucy. Becca won 6-2 6-2.
In one Mixed Doubles semi-final on grass court 3, Yannick Tandy & Marta Chojnowska, newcomers from Paddington tennis club, played Olly Turner & Lizzie Johnson, the second seeds. Yannick is a super player, and would merit a top spot in the WH first team, which plays in Division 1 of Middlesex, were it not for the fact he already plays in the Premier division with Paddington. Marta is also pretty good. Olly, a leftie was Men’s Singles champion in 2024, but I can’t find success for him in either doubles beyond the semis. Lizzie has a very solid game and plays a lot at Coolhurst, including in mixed singles leagues, and is highly mobile. She doesn’t make many errors and doesn’t mind pace because of the experience against heavy men’s serves.
Matters were fairly even in the first set until 5 all, but then Yannick and Marta broke (presumably broke Lizzie?) to take the set 7-5. At this point, due to popular demand (because the Logan vs Richard singles had finished) the match moved across to grass court 2.
It seemed to me that Olly and Lizzie were then playing off each other. Lizzie returned almost all of Yannick’s very hard hit ground strokes,, ran, intercepted and hit winners. It seemed to spur Olly to poach successfully and raise his game, and vice versa. Olly and Lizzie won the second set 6-3. But at this point, the light was fast fading, and the court was becoming slippery, so the players decided to call it a day around the same time as the other Mixed quarter final match on court 1.
The players decided they didn’t want to come back just to play a 10 point match tie break, with no one having any chance to get going properly. So, with official backing (no one was going to try hard enough to stop them!), the players will resume on Wednesday night (tonight as of writing) to play a full tie break set with plenty of recovery time before the Mixed Doubles Final on Thursday. So the match is 7-5 3-6 to be completed.
In the other Mixed Doubles semi-final, Sultan Gangji & Jen Ananda-Rajan, the 4th seeds, played Margaux Valarche & Dan Angel, who were unseeded, but knocked out Joe Rigal & Becca Vaughan, the 2nd seeds. The parents of both Dan and Margaux were there to watch the match.
Sultan is an old hand at mixed, with excellent hand-eye co-ordination and anticipation, and doesn’t miss much. Like Jane Boyle, Sultan has won titles at West Heath over 6 different decades, but it isn’t true that his age matched or exceeded the total of the ages of the other players on the court!
Jen has excellent strokes and the timing of her serve is particularly satisfying to watch. But she has to devote a lot of time to her one year old, detracting somewhat from her tennis. However, it seems she and her husband Josh will be based in London, rather than Oxford, for some time now. Jen won the Ladies Singles in 2023 and 2022, among various other Doubles titles.
Margaux has an excellent game, with great mobility, consistency, anticipation and pace, but injuries seem to have prevented her from being able to develop and deliver flat out serves all the time. Dan is a very consistent player using topspin to make very few unforced errors, and is also very mobile, with good anticipation.
The first set was a good ding dong battle up to 6 all. Dan and Margaux won the set tie break 7-5. In the second set, Dan and Margaux reached 5-2, but light was fading and the agreement was to play one more game, to see if Dan and Margaux could close out the match. But they couldn’t, so the match was suspended due to bad light (and a slippery court) at 6⁵-7 3-5.
The match will resume at 6 pm on Thursday. If Sultan and Jen can come from behind to win the second set, then there will be a 10 point match tie break to decide the outcome.
There was delicious fish pie from Rachael and tasty strawberry pavlova from Lara, and 7 matches were played. We start with the Ladies Doubles.
In a 4 pm afternoon match, Margaux & Elena Valarche played Marjan Denis & Megan Kinder in the last of the Ladies’ Doubles quarter finals. Margaux has strong strokes, excellent court coverage and good tactical nous. Elena’s serve keeps low and she operates on a “chip and charge” basis to get to the net as soon as possible. Marjan has a good all round game, and I don’t know about Megan!
(According to Elena) in the first set, Margaux made the difference, with the opponents not able to find a counter to her court coverage and Elena’s approach to the net. Margaux and Elena won the set 6-1. But in the second set Marjan and Megan found their range to lob Elena, to get the upper hand, winning the second set 6-3.
All was set for the deciding 10 point match tie break. Margaux and Elena focused on drop shotting Megan more when she was at the back of the court, and this broke the momentum and enabled a decisive early lead for Margaux and Elena, who reached 9-2, then 10-3. Margaux and Elena won the match 6-1 3-6 [10-3].
In the follow up Ladies’ Doubles semi-final match, Margaux & Elena Valarche played Alex Reyner & Posy Frederick, the top seeds, who won the Ladies’ Doubles in 2024. It was a big ask for Margaux and Elena to make an impression on the top seeds, particularly after the hard fought quarter final earlier in the day. Alex and Posy quite rightly took advantage and won 6-1 6-1.
However, note that Elena had enough energy left to jump for the subsequent match photo.
The other Ladies’ doubles semi-final match was played between Becca Vaughan & Emily Harrold and the second seeds Jen Ananda-Rajan & Lizzie Johnson. The first set was very tight all round, and resulted in a tie break which was won by Jen and Lizzie. But Jen and Lizzie then seem to have walked away with the match in the second set, winning the set 6-1 for a 7-6 6-1 win.
In the first of the Men’s Singles semi-finals, Alex Vallmajor, one of four equal 5th seeds, took on Greg Lim, the fourth seed. Greg had played excellently, with few errors, against Dan Angel, who is highly mobile and consistent, in the R16 match the previous day, and was thus the on form favourite against Alex. As against this, Alex has very consistent topspin strokes with little risk of errors, and plays mainly on hard courts. Because of the extended very hot and dry spell, the West Heath grass courts are playing more like hard courts than normal, though still in reasonable condition. So Alex wasn’t far from his normal hard court comfort zone.
In the end, Greg just couldn’t keep down his error rate for whatever reason. Alex kept up his consistent defence, hit a few winners of his own, and took advantage. But the precise corner shots Greg had used to beat Dan the day before just weren’t going in now. Tennis is not a timed sport, so if Greg had been able to recapture his consistency at any stage of the match, he could still have won it. But it wasn’t to be. Alex took the match 6-3 6-4, and had every right to be very pleased with his performance, as in the photo.
In the second Men’s Singles quarter final of the evening, James Li-Tremble, one of four equal 5th seeds, took on Marcio Sugui, the second seed, most recently winning the Singles in 2023, and Runner Up to Stephen Cooke in 2025.
This was a very high powered, close match.
James plays regularly for 1st team in division. He has a very strong game, with power ground strokes and returns. He reported after the match that he made far too many errors (see later).
Marcio is very competitive and plays ITF singles tournaments in his own age group. Marcio had his chances in the first set whilst James had not settled down. But Marcio plays his league matches elsewhere in Lower Divisions and was not used to the power of return of serve and ground strokes coming from James. Once James settled down, he started dictating the match, and the result was predictable.
James won 6-3 6-4 – despite believing he made too many errors in both sets!!
Interestingly, that was an identical score to the other quarter final reported above, in which a fifth equal seed also beat a higher seeded player.
In the 2 pm last R16 match in the Mixed Doubles, Matt Wasser & Sophia Melas played Olly Turner & Lizzie Johnson, the third seeds. Matt & Sophia struggled bravely, and Matt did well to hold his serve once in the first set. But otherwise the seeds had it all their own way. Olly and Lizzie won 6-1 6-0.
Fresh (or not so fresh) from their 4 pm victory, Olly Turner & Lizzie Johnson, the third seeds, went on to play the unseeded Logan Mair & Posy Frederick, who won the Mixed in 2023. So it didn’t seem like a straightforward match for the seeds.
And so it emerged, Olly and Lizzie got off to a poor start, and after 8 games found themselves 3-5 down with Olly to serve next. Olly managed to hold serve and was expecting Logan to serve out the set. But Logan double faulted a couple of times and Olly and Lizzie broke back to level at 5 all.
At this point, Logan started missing more. Olly and Lizzie got themselves into the zone, and started playing more aggressively at the net. taking ten of the next 11 games to win 7-5 6-1.
Note that Lizzie is now the only player left who could potentially pull off a “triple crown” or “victor ludorum” by winning all three eligible events.
Eleven matches were played today, so the club was quite busy, but not heaving like yesterday.
In the Men’s Singles, 4 matches were played.
In the first Men’s Singles, Ben Torns played Joe Rigal, one of the four co-equal 5th seeds! Ben is a student who can hit the ball hard, and is working on improving his consistency during the summer holidays, by playing as much as possible. Joe is also a hard hitter. The match must have been very tight, with each set reaching 6 games all to invoke the normal, end of set, 7 point tie break. But in both tie breaks, Joe leapt ahead early, and won them both 7-3 7-3 for a 7-6³ 7-6³ victory. Next year may be Ben’s year, likely.
In the second Men’s Singles match, Charlie Bergevin played Marcio Sugui, the second seed. Both are consistent players who hit hard and use topspin to keep the ball in and under control. Charlie brought himself to everyone’s attention by matching David Hirst in the R64 match. Marcio is a qualified coach and plays in quite a few external tournaments. The match was very entertaining, and all the spectators enjoyed it.
In the first set, Charlie may not quite have worked out how to play Marcio, who won the set 6-3. But in the second set Charlie gave as good as he got and reached 6 all to kick off a normal 7-point tie break. But Charlie fared less well in this, to lose it 7-3 and the match 6-3 7-6³.
The much anticipated Men’s Singles match was between Dan Angel and Greg Lim, as Dan took out Joe Rigal in the 2025 Tournament. So Greg was on his guard. Dan’s parents came up to support him. Dan is consistent and fast around the court, but lacks the hard hitting and excellent eye of Greg, who was mostly able to hit the ball accurately to either of the two corners of the court at the baseline, a foot or two in. Dan won points but couldn’t force regular errors from Greg. Greg won 6-1 6-1 to ensure Dan was not able to upset a seed this year.
In the final Men’s Singles of the day, Luca Fioretti took on Logan Mair, one of the four equal 5th seeds. Luca is a lefty with some good shots, but Logan is a first team player with a good record, and can hit his serves and other strokes very hard. Logan was able to hit winners and pressure Luca into mistakes, though Luca got one game in each set. Logan won 6-1 6-1.
The one match played in the Ladies’ Singles was between Margaux Valarche and Lizzie Johnson, the fourth seed. Margaux is very consistent and fast about court, with good strokes, but can have problems with her serve. Lizzie is a good solid player, and the two of them do sometimes play together in the first team.
Margaux had some difficulty in winning games in the first set, which Lizzy took 6-1. In the second set Margaux made fewer mistakes and hit more winners, to make the set more even. But Lizzie still hit a few more winners than Margaux in this set, which made the difference as she won it 6-3 to take the match 6-1 6-3.
In the early Men’s Doubles quarter final, played on a hard court, Marcio Sugui & Alex Vallmajor played Logan Mair & Stephen Cooke, the top seeds and 2025 champions. Marcio is a leftie. Both he and Alex have consistent topspin games, but don’t hit the ball as hard as Logan and Stephen.
From the score, it took Marcio and Alex a while to get going, and they lost the first set 6-0. But they played far better in the second set to take it to a tie break, which they lost 7-5 for a 6-0 7-6⁵ victory to the top seeds. If you think about it, this is quite a strange score, but that is tennis for you.
The concluding match in the Men’s Doubles quarter finals was between Peter Farrell & Peter Davies, and Sultan Gangji & Richard Keep, the 4th seeds. The Peters have played doubles together before, but not often. Sultan and Richard are an established first team partnership, and rather more match tight. The Peters won points, but didn’t get to more than 30 in a game. There were some good rallies, but generally the seeds were on top. Sultan and Richard won 6-0 6-0.
In the first of three Ladies’ Doubles, in an R16 match, Marjan Denis & Megan Kinder played Jane Boyle & Barbara Thomas. This turned into a ding dong battle. Jane is a leftie, and likes slice and dropshots. Barbara has a good set of shots. Marjan has a strong overall game. I haven’t seen Megan play.
Marjan and Megan took the first set 6-4, so there wasn’t that much in it. Jane and Barbara came back to win the second set 6-3, setting up a 10 point match tie break in which they would have had momentum. But Marjan and Megan won the match tie break 10-5 to take the match 6-4 3-6 [10-5].
It felt like all the match tie breaks have been won 10-5, but I checked and it is only 3 out of 4 so far!!
In one Ladies Doubles QF match, Jenny Warren & Lesley South played Jen Ananda-Rajan & Lizzie Johnson, the 2nd seeds. Jenny and Lesley did win one game, and some points with some nicely angled shots, but generally the pace and mobility of the seeds were too much for them, though a good time was had by all. Jen and Lizzie won 6-1 6-0.
There is no photo, unless anyone else has one – I was likely on court at the time.
In another Ladies’ Doubles QF match, Kaya Widuch & Susan Grossman played Emily Harrold & Becca Vaughan.
Susan and Kaya are a scratch partnership, while Emily & Becca have played together before and play for the first team. Although there were some good points won by Kaya and Susan, they didn’t add up to any games. Emily and Becca won 6-0 6-0.
In the Mixed, the penultimate R16 match was between Emily Harrold & Peter Davies, playing Logan Mair & Posy Frederick, who were unseeded, but won the Mixed in 2023. Emily and Peter are also playing together off scratch in the Cumberland handicap mixed doubles tournament (which extends over 3 months!)
In the first set, Peter struggled to hold serve, but Emily served well throughout, and held her service game in that set, though the pair could not break the opponents. So Logan and Posy won the set 6-1. In the second set Peter and Emily won two service games and Peter was 40-0 up on his serve, but could not convert this into a third game. So Logan and Posy won the match 6-1 6-2.
There were eight matches played today.
Although I couldn’t be there due to an evening choral concert and afternoon rehearsal, the reports were that the club was buzzing and that all of Greg’s tea got eaten up!! There were only one or two matches with 6-0 or 6-1 sets, so much entertainment to be had.
In the Men’s Singles, Kris Engley faced Stephen Cooke, top seed and 2025 champion. I am sure Stephen didn’t have it all his own way, but he did win 6-0 6-1.
Also in the Men’s Singles, J P Doumeng played Ben Torns. It looks like J P could not hold his serve, as Ben won 6-2 6-2.
In the first match in a Men’s Singles match chain, Adi Bhagwat played Federico Mondelli. Federico won 6-2 6-2.
In a subsequent match between Federico and Charlie Bergevin, Charlie won 6-2 6-3.
In the Ladies’ Singles, Alex Reyner beat Marjan Denis 6-0 6-1.
In the first round of the Mixed, Joe Rigal & Becca Vaughan, the second seeds, beat Mark Webb & Lesley South 6-1 6-1. Lesley mouthed some words of wisdom about the match on the few seconds of motion photo I received, but the camera didn’t pick up the audio!
In the second installment of this match chain in the Mixed, Dan Angel & Margaux Valarche in turn had to face Joe Rigal & Becca Vaughan, the second seeds. This match was much tighter than the match above, but ended up representing another blow to Sultan’s seedings for 2026 when Dan and Margaux won 6-4 6-3.
Also in the Mixed, Richard Keep & Molly Hiebert had to face Sultan Gangji & Jen Ananda-Rajan, the fourth seeds. I wish I had seen this one. Sultan and Jen won it 6-2 6-4.
The two matches above took place side by side on grass courts 1 and 2, as can be seen from the photo above.
Only one match was played, a Men’s Doubles featuring the father and son clash between Bruce Rigal & Yannick Tandy, and Joe Rigal & Olly Turner, the third seeds. “An easy one for the seeds” you might say, except that Yannick is rated by at least one men’s first team member as better than anyone currently on the WH first team, although he currently plays for Paddington, and not West Heath.
The match took place on hard court 4, as there was a men’s first team match against Chandos 2, who drubbed West Heath by winning all but one set. They had two ex tour professionals playing for their team which was always going to make it difficult!
Bruce is steady but not spectacular, and Yannick is really good. Joe and Olly are good and hard hitting. They both normally play for the second team, but also get drafted in to the first team. Olly is a leftie and won the Singles in 2024
In the first set, the seeds started with Joe on the right and Olly (the leftie) on the left, but it didn’t work that well. Bruce and Yannick broke, got to 4-2 up, and maintained the advantage to win the set 6-4. So Joe and Olly decided to swap sides in the second set, which makes it easier to poach when receiving serve. They played a much strong second set, to take it 6-1.
The match outcome then depended on a 10 point match tie break. With the momentum in their favour, Joe and Olly took the first 4 points of this, making it difficult for Bruce and Yannick. Joe and Olly went on to improve their 2 minibreak advantage a little to take the tie break 10-5 and the match 4-6 6-1 [10-5].
This was to be another day of mainly 6-0 or 6-1 sets.
And while there were three Men’s Singles matches played, only one of them was for real! There was also one Ladies’ Singles played.
In the Ladies’ Singles, Kaya Widuch played Marjan Denis. Kaya kicked off the match with two fantastic service returns to break Marjan in the first game, but alongside some excellent winning strokes also made a number of errors. So she got broken too much to threaten Marjan’s progress. Marjan won the match 6-2 6-3.
Joe Smooha played Alan Braier on grass. Joe is a more mature player, and also a keen amateur musician, playing the clarinet in the Royal Orchestral Society, in which Brian Coffey also plays the cello. At a glance, Joe’s game seemed more suitable to a hard court than grass, and his timing seemed to be affected by the lower bounce. Alan is on the membership list as an under 21/student member, though seemed somewhat older than that, and has played at a decent standard for the second team.
Under pressure from Alan, Joe made a number of mistakes, and could not get any games in the first set. But he kicked off the second set with a service hold, though that was it. Alan thus won 6-0 6-1.
Unfortunately, neither can play another match in the next few days. So Alan actually stopped at match point and tried to concede to Joe. After some discussion, Sultan, as on-site referee, was consulted on the possible timescale for the next round match. But, after 10 minutes, when it became clear that neither player could meet the deadlines, they played another point which gave Alan the victory for the record. James Li-Tremble thus gets a walkover into the next round.
Hidden away on hard court 4, out of the prying sight of the spectators, Ashish Nair played Jason Yung. Jason is very keen and highly mobile, throwing himself all over the court chasing lost causes or otherwise, with some decent strokes. However, after his 6-0 6-1 drubbing when playing with Kerry Karageorgis against Greg Meyer & Alan Braier in the Doubles, and possibly also the England match result, he was feeling somewhat subdued about his tennis. Ashish doesn’t play so regularly.
According to Ashish, they both hit good hard strokes and serves, and the real difference was that most of Jason’s went in, and quite a few of his didn’t. So Jason won 6-1 6-1, and is feeling somewhat more bullish about his tennis, at least until he comes to play Alex Vallmajor in the next round. The strong advice from a number of spectators was that Jason should make sure he plays Alex on grass, if he wants Alex to make any mistakes at all.
Fortunately, Jason is available to play the next round, so this match was the one that counted!
The highlight of the evening for the spectators was the final Singles match between David Hirst and Charlie Bergevin. Both are decent players of second team standard. Charlie did not know, but David and the spectators did, that David could not play his next match in the schedule required to keep the tournament on track.
At first it looked like David would win with no problems. He can hit consistent, strong strokes, but also throws in an occasional very hard whack, which either goes in or not, but doesn’t come back. He used this less in the second set, possibly because he was monitoring the success rate and found it not worthwhile. Charlie stuck with the strong strokes without taking undue risks. Both players showed a great deal of tactical awareness of how to manoeuvre an opponent out of position.
David’s “whack” shot had consequences, as he broke a string at one point, which brought to light the fact he didn’t go round with a matching pair of rackets, just a current racket and an older design spare. After the match the spectators noted that the vertical string was broken in more than one place, separated by a couple of intact lengths. Sultan unkindly pointed out that the expected position for a string break was in the centre, rather than off to one side and slightly higher than the sweet spot.
The standard of tennis was very high, with David taking the first set 6-3. Charlie got the upper hand more in the lengthy second set, but David was still highly motivated to get to match point. However, Charlie took the second set 6-3. At this point the contestants enquired as to whether a Champions Tie Break or a third set was required. On being told that the rules said a third set, David decided it wasn’t worth playing a similarly lengthy third set if he was going to have to concede it at match point anyway if he was winning. So he decided to call it a day, with Charlie going through 3-6 6-3 (retired).
It was an excellent match to watch to round off the evening, played to a high standard.
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.
Interestingly, Bruce has now set himself up for a father/son clash with Joe Rigal & Olly Turner, the third seeds, in the quarter finals.
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 (2021 plus other previous years) champions Greg Lim & Marjan Denis. Margaux also won the 2023 Mixed event with Jasper Tresidder.
Dan and Margaux are consistent, mobile and very tactically aware, while Greg and Marjan are more experienced, and Greg is harder hitting, but prone to more errors.
In the first set, Greg & Marjan earned a service break to go 5-3 up, but then Greg was 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 twice, winning the match 7-6 6-2.
In the last mixed doubles, Elena Valarche & Joshua Woodyard were playing Richard Keep & Molly Hiebert.
Elena is a demon at the net and aims to get up to it as fast as possible in most points, especially on grass. Joshua has a good serve and can hit heavy groundstrokes, but can’t necessarily maintain consistency on them indefinitely.
Molly seems to have developed into a decent all round doubles player over the past couple of years or so, though did do tennis at college. She hit the ball reasonably hard, didn’t make many mistakes, and didn’t lack tactical nous. Richard is the “acting” club coach – with Olly Turner standing in when Richard has jobs as an actual actor. Richard is a strong “leftie” first team player with a very heavy leftie serve and a good all round game.
It turns out that this was the first time Molly and Richard (who are partners) had played together on the same side of the net. Although Molly was easily holding her own, when she was at the net, Richard did keep poaching from the back of the court, to try to hit outright winners. I didn’t keep a tally of each, but there were poached winners which Richard made, shots which Richard tried to poached only to put out, shots where Molly quite rightly decided she was not going to let him poach her shot, and at least one I can remember where Richard failed to make the winner though keeping his shot in, but was out of position, enabling the opponents to hit a winner into the wide open space he had just left. There was also one occasion when Richard, at the net with Molly on the baseline, tried, but couldn’t reach the lob, but, in making the attempt, put Molly off running to cover the ball behind him. The moral of the tale is that Richard has to trust Molly to hit her shots, which she is quite capable of doing. It is even more important because Molly is improving as she plays more.
Having said all this, Elena and Joshua played well, and the match wasn’t totally one sided. The first set went 6-3 to Richard and Molly, who also took the second set for a 6-3 6-2 victory.
The last match of the day was a singles between Dan Angel and Kerry Karageorgis. This started on grass court 3, but was always going to be kicked off to a hard court by the Ladies’ first team match which started at 6:30 pm. In the end this happened after playing two games of the second set.
Dan is very consistent, fast, and a good all rounder, having played a lot of singles with Margaux Valarche. In the 2025 Tournament, he took out the hard hitting Joe Rigal, the seventh seed, 6-1 6-2, so is a dangerous opponent. Kerry is a leftie, plays frequently and, when on form and fit, doesn’t make many mistakes and can hit some heavy shots.
Dan’s approach was to hit around 3/4 length balls, not to give Kerry too much pace to return, a good angle, or an easy opportunity to approach the net. Kerry made more mistakes when he tried to generate his own pace, and the rallies were generally pretty long, especially when the match moved to the hard court. My suggestion to Kerry would have been to try a few volleys from outside the service box on one or two deeper balls, to shorten Dan’s time to respond and take him out of his comfort zone – which would have worked better on the grass than the hard.
Dan succeeded in frustrating Kerry, who made sufficient mistakes to allow Dan to take the first set 6-3.
Once it moved to the hard court, it looked as if the match was going to go on all night, though it finished before 7 pm. Dan also took the second set to win 6-3 6-2.
Dan faces Greg Lim next, the fourth seed. Dan says he will be changing his strategy against Greg.
Although the pace of matches had been a bit slow so far, it picked up dramatically this Tuesday. It was a day when 6-0 and 6-1 featured prominently in the final scores, with one or two notable exceptions.
In the Men’s Singles, Matt Wasser played most of one set against JP Doumeng, but then had to retire, with the score at 6-5 to JP.
Also in the Men’s Singles, Luca Fioretti beat Jeff Fine 6-1 6-2.
In the Ladies’ Singles, the youngster Lucy Fletcher and the more mature Elena Valarche started on a grass court, then moved to a hard court at 5-5 in the first set. Elena’s style is to come to the net behind everything. Lucy makes few mistakes but doesn’t hit the ball that hard on either serve or ground strokes, and volleys less than Elena. On the hard court the match became a two and a half hour war of attrition which finished around 8:30 pm, with Elena’s energy flagging (and she spends a lot of time exercising). Both sets went to tie breaks, and Lucy won both of these for a 7-6 7-6 victory.
In the Men’s Doubles, Brian Coffey & Mark Webb took on Marcio Sugui & Alex Vallmajor. Mark reported there were some good rallies, but the more regular tournament competitors and team players, Marcio and Alex only made 2 mistakes, to win 6-0 6-0.
In the Men’s Doubles, Kerry Karageorgis & Jason Yung played Greg Meyer & Alan Braier. Kerry is a left hander, who plays most days and is pretty consistent. Jason can play a decent game and throws himself about the court to retrieve balls. However, Greg and Alan play together for the West Heath second team, so are more match tight.
Kerry and Jason did their best, but were outclassed, and got only one game in the second set, for a 6-0 6-1 victory to Greg and Alan.
In another Men’s Doubles match, Ashish Nair & Joshua Woodyard were drawn against the second seeds, Greg Lim & James Li-Tremble, who play for the first team. There was a significant difference in level, and Ashish and Joshua got points, but not games, for a 6-0 6-0 victory to the seeds.
In the Mixed, Bernardo Pistorelli & Victoria Li were drawn against the 2025 Champions and top seeds, Stephen Cooke & Alex Reyner. They got one game, in the second set, for a 6-0 6-1 victory to the top seeds.
In the first round of the Mixed, Jason Yung & Lucy Fletcher took on Yannick Tandy & Marta Chopnowska.
Jason has a habit of throwing himself around the court to successfully retrieve lost causes. He has some good heavy strokes too, and is very enthusiastic about his tennis. I have seen Yannick play friendly singles, and he looks very useful players. I know anything about the ladies in the match.
This match report was from Jason.
“Yannick had a wicked kick serve and Marta had a solid all round game. Lucy got in to a good rhythm on the return of serve, however she and Jason could not do enough to get more games. There were some incredible net play points but in the end Yannick and Marta were the better pair.”
Or put another way, Yannick and Marta won 6-1 6-2.
In the Men’s Doubles, in an afternoon match, Jeff Fine & Geoff Isaacs took on the third seeds, Olly Turner & Joe Rigal, both accustomed to playing tennis at the first and second team level. This match report is from Joe Rigal, an accredited tennis journalist at Wimbledon and elsewhere.
“Jeff and Geoff are wily players who know their way around a grass court, but admitted that they were rustier than they’d hoped entering the tournament. The lefty/righty pair of Olly and Joseph have been regular doubles partners for a number of seasons now, both in the club tournament and in team matches, and the grass particularly suits Olly with his low shot trajectory.
Using the surface to his advantage, Joseph deliberately served and volleyed on the majority of his service points, looking to put away any popped up returns.
Whenever possible Jeff and Geoff looked to chip returns fast and low over the net, but Joseph’s serving power and Olly’s accuracy proved too much and the challengers couldn’t find a foothold in the match as the seeds won 6-1 6-0″
The first Ladies’ Singles match of the tournament, Posy Frederick took on the third seed Jen Ananda-Rajan. Both have strong games, but Jen has had the extra responsibilities of motherhood over the past year, to distract her from tennis. Here is Jen’s match report:-
“Posy and Jen played their match down on the hard courts during the ladies’ 2nd team match Monday evening. Posy started the match very strongly, using her heavy topspin high bouncing ground strokes extremely effectively. Before Jen knew it she had lost the first set, but was able to counter and time the ball better in the second set which led to lots of long rallies and fun points. In the end, Posy’s consistency and court coverage was too good and Jen struggled to hold serve, with Posy breaking her at 4-5 for a 6-0 6-4 win.”
This is, of course, the first failure this year, in Sultan’s normally excellent seeding!
Peter Davies had to concede his Men’s Singles match to Joe Smouha as a result of a minor foot sprain. He still hopes to play in the other events later this week.
Three matches were played today.
Orhun Gulay has to go away for a while, so he wanted to get his singles matches played. He got himself replaced in the Mixed Doubles.
When I saw Orhun as I was arriving and he was leaving, he was in a hurry, and didn’t want to pose for a photo alone, and his opponents had already gone.
In the first of his matches, Orhun Gulay took on Peter Farrell, who plays a reasonable game of singles. Orhun plays a similar game. From the score, it looks like the first set was pretty tight, going to a tie break, which Orhun won. In the second set, Orhun got more of an upper hand, winning it 6-2 to take the match 7-6 6-2.
Orhun had also arranged a second round match for the winner of the first match, which thus involved Orhun Gulay versus Brendan Fox, who has played for a team, I am told . Brendan won the match 6-0 6-1, and next faces Richard Keep, the third seed.
There was also a Mixed Doubles match with Simon Defoe & Anna Ganev playing Peter Davies & Emily Harrold. Simon has a decent serve and good ground strokes, and is tall, enabling him to dominate the net. Anna played well, getting back most things within reach, often with a floated ground stroke landing just inside the base line. Emily is very steady, with excellent mobility. She can time the ball well, even off awkward balls, to produce decent pace. She has a good serve, groundstrokes and volleys, but is relatively easy to lob.
Emily and Peter (me) are also playing in the Cumberland tournament (which goes on over 3 months over summer), and we played a match there last weekend. Emily thought that today’s match was at the Cumberland, and I managed to forget my mobile phone, so there was a delay in starting the match while Emily drove from the Cumberland. Fortunately the two are less then a five minute drive apart.
Simon started with a good service hold, but Emily and Peter were able to gradually assert themselves in the other games. The main issue was keeping the ball away from Simon at the net. On Anna’s serve Simon sometimes tried to cover the soft, angled, crosscourt shots, but in doing so, left himself exposed to a pass down the line.
Simon and Anna got three games in each set, for a 6-3 6-3 victory to Emily and Peter.
The tournament has started, though only three matches had been played, as of Saturday night.
In the Men’s Singles, played on Thursday, Simon Defoe played Ben Torns in the round of 64 preliminary matches. Simon is new this year, but has a decent serve and ground strokes. He also has the advantage of height, allowing him to dominate at the net, at least at doubles.
Ben is now a student who previously played social tennis at West Heath as a junior. He can hit the ball very hard, on both serve and ground strokes, but with that comes inconsistency.
Simon reported that Ben turned down the pace somewhat, in order to hit fewer losers, and the result was that Ben won 6-3 6-2.
On Friday, Josh Woodyard and Kerry Karageorgis played in another R64 preliminary Men’s Singles. Kerry has been playing a lot, mainly on the hard courts. Further, he is a leftie, which takes a bit of getting used to, especially in singles. Here’s the match report from Josh, supplied via Kerry:-
“Kerry secured a convincing 6-2 6-1 victory. His tactical awareness proved decisive, repeatedly exposing Josh’s difficulty handling changes in pace, blocked shots and slice.”
“Josh struggled to maintain consistency when rallies deviated from a steady rhythm, leading to a high volume of unforced errors. Kerry capitalized effectively, also with a few extraordinary efforts on key points to maintain momentum and close out both sets comfortably”
On Saturday evening there was a Mixed Doubles between Henry Lloyd-Hughes & Liz Hill, and Sultan Gangji & Jen Ananda-Rajan, the fourth seeds. Various spectators got to know about it and put in an appearance.
Henry & Liz were playing the role of David against Goliath here, and had not played together before. Liz said she was relying on Henry, who is a leftie, to do most of the running, and indeed he obliged. Henry and Liz tried to take advantage when Sultan and Jen both approached the net, by lobbing. This was reasonably effective, but didn’t yield enough points on its own.
Jen and Sultan generally just kept putting the ball back in court, often into places where the opponents weren’t, though Henry got to a number of these balls. The seeds didn’t make too many mistakes, but there were enough of them, along with the challenger lobs, to give the challengers two games, one in each set, for a 6-1 6-1 victory to Sultan and Jen.
Finals Day was well attended this year. Marjan Denis counted a crowd of around 40 after a set or so in the first two matches, but later, perhaps attracted by the Finals Day tea, the number of spectators rose considerably higher.
This was a closely fought Final between Stephen Cooke, the 3rd seed and Marcio Sugui the 2nd seed, the top seed, Olly Turner, having been beaten by Richard Keep in the Quarter Finals. The match was well umpired by Greg Lim, with four vintage line judges, policing every baseline and service line.
This match took so long that, while starting first, it finished within seconds of the Ladies’ Doubles which followed the Ladies’ Singles on grass court 1.
Marcio is a very consistent leftie, who takes advantage of leftie and other spins. He generally uses heavy topspin on both sides to ensure the ball goes in. He also has a deadly drop shot which he employs when he has moved his opponent wide and deep to a corner, angling it to the opposite side of the court. Quite often, this won Marcio the point. However, on a few occasions, Stephen’s long legs took him to the ball on time, and he hit a precise, short angled half volley to put the ball a few inches inside the side line, to which Marcio had no response.
Stephen has some stronger strokes, but made more mistakes, particularly in the second half of the first set. He also has a preference for the forehand and lost a handful of points running round Marcio’s leftie spin slice serves to his forehand and mishitting. But when presented a narrow opportunity to hit a winner he can put the ball on a sixpence 6 inches diagonally in from the corner. He aced Marcio a few times. Someone commented that Stephen often has a hangdog look, even when he has just won the point with a brilliant shot.
After a couple of games, light rain started, which made the court a little slippery, and the players came off. Sultan Gangji came on to assess the situation, while the umpire, Greg, checked on how wet the balls had become. The match continued after only a short delay.
This was an thrilling match for the spectators, particularly since the outcome wasn’t obvious, and there were nail biting moments for the supporters of either player.
Stephen started well with an early break, to go 3-1 up. But then, as Marcio got into the match, Stephen seemed to lose concentration, hitting balls long and making other errors, allowing the score to reach 4 all. The set reached 6 all for a set tie break (first to 7). During the tie break, Stephen seemed to sharpen up a lot, and took it fairly easily 7-2.
At this point one or two of the spectators were speculating that Stephen had to win the second set too, or was likely to lose in 3 sets. Stephen himself didn’t seem too concerned at any point.
In the second set, Stephen concentrated better throughout, but Marcio also stepped it up. The score reached 5 all before Stephen held his serve, and then broke Marcio to take the title 7-6² 7-5, for the second of his titles at this tournament, with his Men’s Doubles Final to go.
This was contested between a newcomer in her 20s and Becca Vaughan, the top seed and 2024 Champion. The match was umpired by Marjan Denis.
The newcomer has a very strong all round game, with no obvious weaknesses, and mainly plays singles. She is fast about court, and is tall, so she is not easy to lob either, though Becca managed it once or twice. After the event it emerged she was nationally ranked elsewhere, but consistently beaten in tournaments by those in the top 50 who were training to become professional tennis players.
The newcomer beat Alex Reyner in three sets in the Semi-Finals, though her loss of the first set can probably be ascribed to the fact that it had been her first match played on grass.
Becca played both singles and doubles in matches for Oxford university, but has since played her only singles in the West Heath tournament. She is steady and consistent and hard hitting, with a good tennis brain.
Becca was able to craft some points and hit some winners, but it wasn’t enough, as the newcomer made very few mistakes. There was one memorable game in the second set in which Becca held serve, which brought forth a huge cheer from the spectators.
So the result was a 6-0 6-1 victory to the newcomer.
The umpire, Marjan Denis, later described the newcomer as the strongest female player she had seen during her time at West Heath.
This took place between Marjan Denis & Barbara Thomas, the 2nd seed, and Alex Reyner & Becca Vaughan the top seeds. The title was won last year by Alex Reyner and Posy Frederick. The umpire was Alex Vallmajor.
Marjan seems to play tennis most days, often more than once. Barbara has recently returned to playing competitive matches. Alex and Becca play a lot of first team doubles, when they are available, and are an experienced partnership. Both have strong all round games and were thoroughly coached in doubles tactics as part of the Oxford University tennis team, though that was a few years ago.
Although Marjan and Barbara put up a good fight, it was not easy to stop Alex and Becca, who had the experience and shots to get in a position to hit winners or force errors. Marjan and Barbara won one game in the second set for a 6-0 6-1 victory to Alex and Becca.
This was contested between Greg Lim & James Li-Tremble, the 2nd seeds, and Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair, the top seeds and title holders. The umpire was Joseph Rigal.
Greg and James are a new tournament pairing. Previously Greg has been playing with Sultan Gangji, but Sultan believed that Greg now stood a better chance of taking the doubles title with a younger partner. Greg doesn’t make many mistakes. James was the revelation at the tournament, with a good serve and capable of excellent forcing doubles play.
Stephen and Logan have been playing doubles together for some time. Of the two, Logan has the better, heavier serve, and contrary to my previous belief, Stephen assured me that Logan can place his serve accurately (in terms or direction) when directed by his partner. Stephen’s is excellent in terms of placement but not as penetrating as Logan’s.
Unfortunately, during the preceding prize giving, Sultan placed additional pressure on Stephen and Logan, and particularly Logan, by pointing out that that Stephen now had the opportunity to win the Triple Crown (singles, doubles and mixed) by taking the trifecta of Men’s Singles, Mixed Doubles and Men’s Doubles. But only if Logan and Stephen could take the Men’s Doubles.
Logan denied he felt under any more pressure than previously because of the public pronouncement, but it was notable that he, and to a lesser extent Stephen, did not play as well in the first set as they are capable of. Add to this that James played a blinder and Greg made few mistakes in the first set. This resulted in a 6-2 first set to Greg and James with at least two service breaks.
Stephen and Logan reset themselves at the beginning of the second set and got into their stride. They played much closer to their capability and the extra pressure on Greg and James led to the latter losing serve a few times, for a 6-2 second set to Stephen and Logan. But it wasn’t easy and the crowd was on tenterhooks on quite a few points which could have gone either way.
So all was dependent on the Champions Tie Break (first to 10 with a 2 point margin) – aptly named in this case. Anticipation in the crowd was at fever pitch levels at various points, especially at times of a mini-break.
At 4 all, Greg and James secured a mini-break to gain a 6-4 advantage, but Greg lost the 2nd point on his serve. The score then moved through 6 all, 7 all and 8 all. Stephen won his second service point to go 9-8 up, and he and Logan took the last point on the opponent’s serve to win the Championship at the first opportunity 2-6 6-2 [10-8].
Thus Stephen is now the first Triple Crown holder since 2015.
Stephen joins the following august body of six women and just two other men (though Cedric did win it 5 times):-
Note the achievements from over 40 years ago of two very active current members (highlighted).
The Mixed Doubles Champion only has records going back to since 1958.
The initial Prizegiving was held around 16:30 before the Men’s Doubles Final, so that the super sandwiches for the Finals Day Tea did not start to curl!
Before the prizes for the Ladies and Men’s Singles were presented, Sultan outlined the plans for the Clubhouse which has served us all well for the last 60 years.
The guest celebrity presenting the trophies was Manual Vallmajor, representing the Monte Carlo Tennis Club. He compared the West Heath tournament favourably with their Monte Carlo Open (sshh)!
The complete set of finalists are in the front row of the photo of all those present at the bottom
Tea was then served.
There was also a separate presentation later for the Men’s Doubles.
By the time the Men’s Singles Final had finished, there were considerably more spectators than before, queuing up to see the exciting tennis (particularly the men’s doubles, as it turned out). Those seated on benches had to move them forward to allow a second and third row to stand or sit on chairs or bar stools behind to get a good view of the Men’s Doubles.
If you count the number of people (including those hiding behind others with just some parts visible) in the photo at the bottom of this post, of those present by the prizegiving at the end of the Men’s Singles Final, it must have been around 60 altogether, which is surely a recent record.
Here is everyone, with the Finals Day winners and runners up in the front line.
This is the 26th West Heath Tournament I have reported on and one of the best. The weather wasn’t too unkind. The Gourmet Dinners were tasty and well attended. The Finals Day turnout was excellent. And most importantly, there were some really exciting matches, with Stephen winning the men’s Triple Crown.
The photos used in these reports can be found here.
Signing off until next year.
The originally-unscheduled match today was the outstanding Men’s Singles Semi-final between the 6th seed Richard Keep, 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.
Due to yesterday’s rain, the second Men’s Singles Semi-final, between Richard Keep and Stephen Cooke, will be played on grass court 2 at 18:30 this evening (Friday evening).
As it had rained too much during the day, the grass was unplayable. The Mixed Doubles Final and one of the two Men’s Singles Semi-finals were played on the hard courts.
Lesley provided a delicious Thai meal and dessert for the Gourmet Diners, who could join separate lines to the two self-service stations to get to the goodies quicker.
The Men’s Singles Semi-final on hard court four between Greg Lim and Marcio Sugui was a very close fought encounter. The court had both dry and wet patches but, apart from one occasion late on, did not seem to impede the movement of the players.
The standard of tennis was very high and there were few unforced errors. The spectators all marvelled at the typical depth of serves and groundstrokes, with fine margins. Both players had strong serves, and accurate placement, and were trying to move the other around court to get an opening for a winner, but without making an unforced error. If they achieved this aim, both players usually hit good crosscourt or down the line winners.
Marcio had an additional play, which was to drive Greg wide and deep, then play a drop shot to the other side of the court. At first Greg didn’t pick up the signs of drop shot preparation from Marcio, but later on wised up to it, though his percentage of success on such points was still low as Marcio would often be able to follow up with a lob over Greg’s head. But Greg won a few of these points later on. Greg didn’t have any obvious difficult with Marcio’s leftie spins.
In the first set Marcio started slowly, and Greg broke early for a 3-0 lead, but Marcio plugged away to bring the score to 4 games all, then took the set 6-4.
In the second set Marcio had a bit more of the upper hand, and his drop shots were more numerous. Greg was broken and was unable to level the game score again. Marcio won the match with a short ball, reached by Greg, then a good lob which caused Greg to slip for the first time, unable to run for it. Marcio won 6-4 6-4.
The Mixed Doubles Final started on hard court 5, between Joe Rigal & Becca Vaughan, the 2nd seeds and Stephen Logan & Alex Reyner, top seeds and 2024 champions. This was a repeat of the 2024 final (won by Stephen & Alex 6-2 7-5).
Stephen and Alex were winning 5-2 when the match moved over to hard court 4 for the convenience of the numerous spectators/Gourmet Diners, after the conclusion of the Men’s Singles Semi-final.
Stephen and Alex had little difficulty in finishing off the last game of the first set on the new court, to take it 6-2.
For the rest of the match Joe and Becca were struggling to cope with the harder hitting of the title holders.
Stephen made few mistakes, although he was not as sharp on the reflex volleys as in his Men’s Doubles Semi-finals previously. But he hit precise ground strokes mid way between Joe and Becca when the opportunity came. Alex smacked smashes away which came her way at the net, hard and accurately. Both Stephen and Alex have heavy serves with an excellent classical technique.
Joe and Becca did have their moments, but they had to work very hard for them, and there weren’t enough of them, with very few free points coming their way. Joe passed Alex down the line a few times. Becca hit some telling volleys. But the seemingly inevitable result was a 6-2 6-2 victory to Stephen and Alex.
Finalists and spectators …
Everyone mucks in …
Again, the weather was kind, despite earlier forecasts, and all matches were played on grass.
Brian Coffey provided tasty Mediterranean chicken, with assistance from his wife Lilian. Stephen and Sasha provided large quantities of delicious tiramisu for dessert.
The evening’s tennis kicked off with a pair of Ladies’ Singles Semi-finals.
On court 1, Marjan Denis took on the the top seed and 2024 Champion, Becca Vaughan. Marjan was pleased to hit winners on a number of points, and perhaps deserved a game or two more, but Becca is too consistent, accurate and court-savvy to be thwarted for long. Marjan won her only game in the first set, for a 6-1 6-0 victory to Becca.
By contrast, on centre court, it was a super ding dong battle between a newcomer in her 20s and Alex Reyner, the 2nd seed. The newcomer has played a lot of singles on surfaces other than grass, and hadn’t played a singles match on grass before.
She and Alex both have a similar style of play with a lot of topspin groundstrokes used. The standard of tennis was very high, though the tactics mostly used did not take advantage of the grass court.
Alex won a close first set, taking it 7-5.
But the newcomer must have worked out better how to play on grass, and started to move Alex around, forcing errors. The newcomer took the second set 6-1. Alex adjusted her game somewhat in the deciding set, to cut off passing shots down the line, but tired a little faster than her opponent, who then won a few points with shorter balls. The newcomer won the last set 6-2 for a 5-7 6-1 6-2 victory.
It will be fascinating to see what happens on Finals Day when the newcomer plays Becca.
The remaining matches were the pair of Men’s Doubles Semi-finals.
Starting on grass court 3, but moving on to centre court after the first set, Sultan Gangji & Richard Keep, 4th seeds, played Greg Lim & James Li-Tremble, the 2nd seeds. Although Sultan played with Greg the previous year, Sultan had suggested to Greg that he stood a better chance of winning the Men’s Doubles against Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair with James instead. So Sultan and Greg were on opposite sides of the net in the Semi-finals.
Sultan and Richard were relying on Richard’s serve to give them a good leg up into the first set, but it wasn’t quite firing on all four cylinders, and the first set went straightforwardly 6-0 to Greg and James. However, the highlight of the second set was indeed Richard’s serve, in a game towards the end, with a number of break points, which Richard and Sultan held off to finally take the game to raucous cheers from the spectator.
Greg and James won the match 6-0 6-1. It remains to be seen how they get on against the other finalists (not giving anything away).
On grass court 1 the first set of other Men’s Doubles Semi-final was far more competitive. This was played at a high standard, with no quarter asked for or given. The unseeded pair Marcio Sugui & Alex Vallmajor took on the top seeds and 2024 champions Stephen Cooke and Logan Mair. Marcio and Alex relied on accurately placed ground strokes and lobs. Increasingly, as the match went on, Stephen and Logan assumed the net position and relied on reflex volleys to put the ball beyond the opponents. There were a number of superb points with players chasing down almost lost balls to sustain the rallies.
The first set reached 5 all, but Stephen and Logon broke and held to take it 7-5. The challengers were less successful in the second set, as Stephen and Logan hit more penetrating shots to reach the net together. Stephen and Logan took this set 6-2 for a 7-5 6-2 victory.
Although the weather has been good enough for grass court tennis this week, our luck may have run out with the grass, and the Mixed Doubles Final and Men’s Singles Semi-finals will likely have to be played on the hard courts, prior to Lesley’s professional Thai meal. However, if it is not too cold, the canopy in the photos above may still enable us to eat outdoors.
Again, the weather was kind, and the grass courts were in use.
Moira cooked a scrumptious lamb tagine, and Marjan provided red fruits and cream/creme fraiche as a dessert.
As you can see, there was nothing left on the plates once everyone had finished.
The spectators weren’t the only ones awaiting dinner after the tennis, though Jean, the dog, was allowed an early carrot or two. He belongs to Barbara’s niece, who occasionally has to abandon him to Barbara at short notice, when work requires her to be away. Jean specialises in two legged begging.
On Wednesday night, Brian will be serving Mediterranean chicken, followed by a Thai banquet from Lesley on Thursday night.
The Order of Play is here for all but Finals Day.
The second pair of Men’s Singles Quarter Finals was played, this time from the top of the draw.
On court 1, Alex Vallmajor, 8th seed, played Stephen Cooke, 3rd seed. Stephen has faster strokes than Alex, and on paper it should have been easier for him. But Alex doesn’t make many mistakes if he can get to the ball, his topspin tends to keep it in, and he can be accurate when given time to pass someone at the net. Alex’s father will be coming from Spain to provide support later in the week.
Alex broke at a point when Stephen was overhitting the ball out somewhat, much to the concern of Sasha, his (life) partner. However, Alex could also not guarantee to hold his own serve, and the first set reach 6 all for a tie break, which Stephen won 7-4.
In the second set, matters proceeded more according to the seeding, though Stephen still had to be careful. Stephen took the second set 6-2 for a 7-6⁴ 6-2 victory and a Semi-final place.
On centre court, Richard Keep, 6th seed, took on Olly Turner, top seed and 2024 Champion, fancied to take the title again.
Richard was fired up for this one, and wasn’t making many mistakes. Olly hits out, but isn’t quite so consistent. It was pretty close, but Richard tended to have the edge. So it wasn’t to be for Olly, and Richard took the match 6-4 6-4 for a place in the Semi-finals against Stephen.
On grass court 3 there was a Ladies’ Doubles Quarter Final between mother and daughter team Elena & Carine Valarche, and the top seeds Alex Reyner & Becca Vaughan.
Elena and Carine play a decent game, but the power, consistency and accuracy of the top seeds restricted Elena and Carine to a single game, which came in the first set. Alex and Becca thus won 6-1 6-0.
The second set of matches of the evening were the two Mixed Doubles Semi-finals, in preparation for the Final on Thursday.
In the Semi on court 1, Greg Lim & Marjan Denis, 4th seeds, played Stephen Cooke & Alex Reyner, the top seeds and 2024 Champions. All 4 are big hitters. Alex has a very heavy serve, but it sometimes misfires. Greg hits everything with pace and is generally Mr Consistency. The match was close and it was difficult to assess who was on top, but the match went 6-4 6-4 to the title holders.
The Semi on centre court turned out to be a real humdinger – as tight as it gets. Sultan Gangji & Katie Baston, 3rd seeds, were aiming to upset Joe Rigal & Becca Vaughan, second seeds. Joe has a strong first serve, but if he thought he would be intimidating Katie with it, he had another think coming. Katie likes and laps up pace, and generally returns it with interest, not to mention that she can serve faster than a lot of the men. Becca plays very consistently and intelligently, and she and Joe retrieved a number of what looked like lost causes at times. Sultan played well, but sometimes couldn’t keep up with the pace on offer!
The first set went to a tie break, in which Sultan and Katie got the upper hand, to take it 7-4. But Joe and Becca dug in to take the second set, paving the way for a spectacular Champions (Match) Tie Break – first to 10 by a margin of two.
It looked like Sultan and Katie were going to win from 7-2 up (I think). But that just didn’t suit Joe and Becca, who beavered away to put on pressure and break serve, to even up the score. When matters reached 9 all, it could have been anyone’s match, but Joe and Becca took the last two point with a mini-break and hold, to beat the odds and earn the place in the Final 6⁹-7 6-4 [11-9].
