Category: 2026 Tournament

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.

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.

2026 Mixed Doubles 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.

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.

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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.