Please note that the Finals Day singles finals matches start at 13:30 to accommodate the delayed Mixed Doubles matches from Thursday. Tea and prize presentations are forecast to be 16:00 and the Mixed Doubles Final will be played aro0und 16:30.
The complete schedule for Finals Day Saturday can be found here.
The draws leading up to the Finals Day matches are here.
The two unfinished matches were resumed at 18:30 in the evening. See Thursday 25 July match report for the play so far.
On court 1, Alex Vallmajor resumed serving at 3-4 down against Logan Mair, who won the first set 7-67-5. There had been no breaks of service in the match so far.
Alex believed he was at a disadvantage in having to serve cold to resume, while Logan had a game to warm up his play before having to serve. But Alex held his serve to level the second set at 4 games all. Logan held his next service game to go 5-4 up, then put a lot of pressure on Alex, who could not maintain his record on serve, and was finally broken to give Logan the set 6-4 and the match 7-67-5 6-4.
At first, both Alex and one of the bystanders (who shall remain nameless) were confused, but it was clear to Logan and others not directly on the court, that Logan had just won the match, having served only the once.
On court 2 the completion of the match between 4th seed, Olly Turner, and 7th seed Joseph Rigal, took considerably longer. Joseph had won the first set 6-2, with Olly taking the second set 6-4. Joseph now had to serve 0-3 down in the final set.
On the resumption Olly was playing very consistently. He tended to lure Joseph into the net, and Joseph could not find the winning approach shot off a short ball, then was not able to stop Olly from passing him. But Olly typically came to the net with approach shots which put Joseph under a lot of pressure, with Olly finding the winning volley most of the time. Joseph was, however, hitting a number of first service winners.
Joseph won his serve, but got broken again to find himself serving 2-5 down, winning the game. Joseph then broke back to 5 all. He was again under pressure on his next service game, with Olly having match points, but Olly could not convert.
In the set tie break (first to 7), mini-breaks were traded but at 4-5 down, Joseph lost his two service points to give Olly the set 7-67-5.
Although the weather forecast showed the club should have been clear of rain by 4 pm, it was intermittently drizzling, and play had to be interrupted at one point. Then by 7:30 pm it rained more heavily, so neither of the schedules Men’s Singles semifinals matches could be completed, both being abandoned roughly midway through the second set.
Both Men’s Singles semifinals will be completed at 18:00 on Friday. The Mixed Doubles final will be played on Saturday, at Final’s Day, after the Men’s and Ladies’ Doubles finals have completed.
The plan for the remaining matches can be found here.
However, the rain eased off by the time it got dark and the authentic and tasty Mexican Gourmet Dinner from Lesley South was ready, so we could all eat outside. See the menu below.
In addition to the indoor socialising that went on as a result of the rain, Margaux Valarche provided musical entertainment on her saxophone, with excellent performances of Harlem Nocturne (1939, Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers) and Swingin’ Shepherd Blues (1957, Moe Koeffman). Being Canadian Bruce Rigal would have added it was originally entitled ‘Blues a la Canadiana’, but the title was changed for the first recording by Moe Koeffman on the flute.
In the Men’s Singles semifinal on court 1, the 3rd seed, Alex Vallmajor, was hoping to upset the top seed and 2023 losing finalist Logan Mair. Alex is “Mister consistent” with excellent court coverage and rarely misses with his trademark topspin shots. However, he doesn’t have the pace of Logan, who is more prepared to take risks when it doesn’t matter so much.
Logan missed quite a few first serves, but both players won all their service games played on the Thursday. The first set was decided by a tie break, which Logan narrowly took 7-5.
Logan reached 4-3 up on his serve in the second set before rain stopped play. Alex thinks the disruption places him at a small disadvantage. Alex has to hold immediately, but Logan gets a chance to get into the match because he has a “free game” which Alex is expected to win, before Logan has to serve.
We shall see. The situation is shaping up to be reminiscent of Stephan Edberg’s three set 1991 loss at Wimbledon in one epic match against Stich. Edberg, the reigning champion, lost 6-4 6-7 6-7 6-7 in three consecutive tie breaks without ever losing any of his 23 service games! The only break in the match was when Edberg broke Stich in the 5th game of the first set.
In the semifinal on court 2, Joseph Rigal is the 7th seed (having taken out Richard Keep, the second seed) and Ollie Turner is the 4th seed.
This match had more ups and downs than the court 1 semifinal. Both these guys are hard hitters and there had been a lot of speculation on the possible result. Joseph was really fired up in the first set, and took it 6-2. But he appeared to falter a little in the second set, with Ollie forced to step up his game. Ollie took it 6-4. The momentum was with Ollie, who capitalised by breaking Joseph for a 3-0 lead before the match was called off.
In this case, the delay clearly favours Joseph, who will come into the resumption fresh, and having regrouped, and there is only a single break in it at this point. But Joseph has to deliver immediately as he resumes on serve. A fascinating situation!
The order of play for Thursday (including Mixed Doubles final) and Finals Day on Saturday can be found here.
Thursday it is raining and expected to be drizzly until 4 pm, and then clear. But there may not be time for the grass to dry out enough to be playable for the Men’s Doubles semifinals and Mixed Doubles finals tonight. So these may have to be played on the hard courts.
Rachael Gangji prepared a super Gourmet fish pie main course, and Lara provided strawberry pavlova for dessert. Most people went back for seconds.
Meanwhile, the cat who has adopted us was on sentry duty around the perimeter of the club to keep the unwanted foxes away. Later, he came to greet us and be stroked in return for his service to the club members.
There were 3 matches played on Wednesday
18:00 LS SF Alex Reyner (1) vs Marjan Denis
18:00 MS QF Logan Mair (1) vs David Hirst (8)
19:15 MD SF Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair (1) vs Olly Turner & Joseph Rigal (3)
On court 1, Marjan Denis had to play the top seed Alex Reyner. Marjan has a good all round game with some strong strokes. The only snag is that Alex also has a good all round game and seemingly hits the ball almost twice as hard, particularly the serve.
Marjan hit some good winners, and Alex made some errors, but Marjan struggled to hang on to her service games. Alex won 6-1 6-2.
In the Men’s Singles quarter final on court 2, David Hirst was trying to upset the top seed Logan Mair. David can generate a lot of pace on the ball on the serve and groundstrokes, but doesn’t quite have the consistency that Logan has. As for the previous Ladies’ Singles match, David hit some decent winners, particularly when Logon was at the net, accompanied by load and raucous applause for the under dog from the majority centre court crowed. But David couldn’t keep up the required pace of shot and get enough of them in to threaten Logan, who won the match by the same score, 6-1 6-2.
There seems to be no clear consensus on who will triumph in the Men’s Singles final on Saturday, with all the semi-finalists receiving support. Hopefully, this is a taste of tantalising Men’s Singles matches to come on Thursday and Saturday.
The highlight of the evening for the spectators was undoubtedly the Men’s Doubles semifinal match between top seeds and 2023 champions, Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair, and the third seeds Olly Turner & Joseph Rigal. Olly and Joseph were hopeful, but Stephen is very difficult to get past, as he is 6’3″ tall, has long arms in proportion and excellent anticipation, movement and strokes. Stephen can also hit strong and high first serves. Logan is consistent and can whack a first serve down to which the return is difficult to control. Logan can also employ tricky top slice serves. If he misses on the first serve, he can get a topspin second serve in which doesn’t give much away. Joseph and Olly also have heavy serves and shots, but can’t quite retrieve and respond to pace in the same way as Stephen in particular.
The first set generally went with serve, but Joseph and Olly could not prevent being broken, to give Stephen and Logan the first set 6-3.
The second set was much closer, and reached 5 games all. If my memory is correct, Joseph and Olly then threatened Logan’s serve, but Logan held on, as did Joseph and Olly, setting up a set tie break (normal first to 7 tie break). There were a few mini-breaks in the tie break, but these were always recovered until matters reach 7 all, when Stephen and Logan pulled out two points in a row to take the match 6-3 7-69-7.
The Gourmet Dinner for Tuesday was tasty Mediterranean Chicken, prepared by chefs Brian and Lilian Coffey, with desserts of first biscuits and then stewed plums with crème fraîche.
The order of play for the rest of the week can be found here.
The weather for this evening (Wednesday evening) looks to be dry, so the grass should be in use. But tomorrow looks wet. The Metweather map shows no rain after 1 pm, but that may not be enough time for the grass to dry out enough to be playable.
There were 5 matches played in total.
18:00 LS QF Elena Valarche vs Becca Vaughan (2)
18:00 LD SF Alex Reyner & Posy Frederick (1) vs Moira Duncan & Marjan Denis
18:00 MD QF Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair (1) vs David Hirst & Gabriele Abbati
19:15 MXD SF Jasper Tresidder & Margaux Valarche (6) vs Stephen Cooke & Alex Reyner (2)
19:15 MXD SF Logan Mair & Posy Frederick (1) vs Joseph Rigal & Becca Vaughan (7)
In the Ladies Singles quarter final on court 1, Elena Valarche played Becca Vaughan, the second seed. Elena’s main strategy is always to come to the net as soon as possible and hope to put volleys away. Becca was happy to hit passing shots out of Elena’s reach, most of the time, though it was not always on the first attempt. And Becca is very mobile so could scramble back a number of Elena’s volleys.
In the first set Elena hit enough winning volleys in one game for her to win the game, with Becca taking the set 6-1. In the second set Elena’s strategy worked even better, as she doubled her score. But Becca took the position in the final with a 6-1 6-2 victory.
The first match on court 2 was a Ladies’ Doubles semifinal in which Alex Reyner & Posy Frederick, the top seeds, played Moira Duncan & Marjan Denis. Marjan has a good all round game, and Moira has a penetrating forehand and can hit decent volleys – useful in doubles. Alex can hit the ball very hard on serve and groundstrokes, but sometimes makes errors. Posy hits the ball nearly as hard, and is generally tactically astute on the court.
The top seeds seemed surprised by the game and strength of Moira and Marjan. One or two breaks were traded as the score reached 4 games all, to the astonishment of the spectators. But, at this point, while the seeds held serve, Marjan was broken to give the first set to the seeds 6-4.
In the second set Alex and Becca had more of an idea how to win point, so it was more difficult for the challengers to hold serve, allowing Alex and Becca to take the match 6-4 6-2.
The Men’s Doubles on court 3 was between Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair, the top seeds, and David Hirst & Gabriele Abbati. Gabriele has a very heavy serve, but it quite often doesn’t go in. Similarly with the groundstrokes, and it is easier in doubles to defend against raw pace. David has a good all round game. Stephen looms large at the net at something like 6 foot 4 inches, and is highly mobile to boot, so is very difficult to pass. Such height comes with a big advantage on the serve too. Logan wellies a lot of shots, but is somewhat more careful on second serves.
In the first set David and Gabriele could not make any useful impression on the top seeds, who always seemed to have an answer when it mattered. In the second set they won one game (was it on Gabriele’s serve?) So Stephen and Logan won 6-0 6-1.
The remaining two matches were the two Mixed Doubles semifinals, played early to ensure the final can be on Thursday, weather permitting. Neither could start until all the other matches had finished because many of the same players, or courts, were involved.
On court 1, the Mixed Doubles semifinal was between Jasper Tressider & Margaux Valarche, the sixth seeds, and the top seeds Stephen Cooke & Alex Reyner. Both Stephen and Jasper performed well at the net, but Jasper was presented with a great deal more pace than in the previous match against Alex Vallmajor and Katie Baston, so had less scope for showing creativity. Margaux played well, but the seeds were too strong and too consistent, and broke serve more than once in each set. Stephen and Alex won the match 6-2 6-2.
On centre court there was the other Mixed Doubles semifinal which was a real humdinger between Logan Mair & Posy Frederick and Joseph Rigal & Becca Vaughan. The standard of play has been very high in the mixed doubles this year, as the more recent ladies first team women have raised the overall standard of play. This match was no exception.
The men tended to dominate the net while the women covered both sides of the court at the back and hit high, but strong, looping topspin strokes to avoid interception by the men at the net.
The first set was very tight, and Logan and Posy were more settled at the beginning than Joseph and Becca. So Logan and Posy just edged the first set 6-4.
In the second set, the initial difference was Joseph, who was determined to prove he had improved dramatically from a few years ago. His higher standard of play gave him confidence and also enabled Becca to raise her game. Logan seemed to be holding back on the smashes instead of just pummelling them down into the ground, giving the opposing pair some chance of retrieving them, though it is difficult to assess what one should do in mixed doubles when smashing near the woman. Joseph’s first service game went to something like double digits of deuces, and when Joseph and Becca won it, it was clear it was not going to be easy for Logan and Posy to break them. Joseph and Becca won the second set 6-3.
In the match tie break (first to 10 etc.) , the momentum clearly remained with Joseph and Becca, and they took it for a 10-7 for a 4-6 6-3 [10-7] victory and a place in Thursday’s final.
Becca apologised for not wearing all whites, though there is no particular reason why she should, given the other three are all Cumberland members, though Posy is in the squash section, not tennis section.
Last night, the Gourmet Dinner was delicious lamb tagine prepared by Moira Duncan, with some help from lamb slicers Greg Lim and Marjan Denis. Katie Baston contributed tasty home made cheesecake and some individual posset desserts.
The order of play for the rest of the week can be found here.
There were 6 matches played in total.
14:00 LD QF Liz Hill & Julia Abbot vs Margaux & Elena Valarche (3)
18:00 MS QF Greg Lim (5) vs Olly Turner (4)
18:00 MS QF Philip Reid (6) vs Alex Valmajor (3)
18:30 LD SF Becca Vaughan & Katie Baston (2) vs the winners of the 14:00 match!
19:15 MS QF Joseph Rigal (7) vs Richard Keep (2)
19:15 MXD QF Jasper Tresidder & Margaux Valarche (6) vs Alex Vallmajor & Katie Baston (3)
The entry for the Ladies Singles and Doubles events has been disappointing this year. Certainly, a lot of ladies who work tend to be very busy around this time, perhaps due to the holiday absences of others. But there was certainly room for another 2 entries in the Ladies’ Doubles, and 3 in the Ladies’ Singles before anyone would have had to play more than 1 preliminary match (QF or before) in advance of the Gourmet Dinner evenings and Finals Day matches. Some ladies, who did not enter these events, have commented that, had they known the draw would be so sparse, they would have entered as the extra match load would have been easy enough to schedule. Next year maybe!!
The first match was played early afternoon and was a Ladies Doubles 1st round match (quarter final) between Liz Hill & Julia Abbot, and Margaux & Elena Valarche, the third seeds.
Julia Abbot was still a little hung over from the drinking on her last evening of the week spent cruising around Norway, ending with breakfast on the ship that very day! Margaux was fitting the match in between regular teaching slots after a weekend away.
Julia and Liz were in it more for the fun and experience, and to avoid the double bagel if possible, but the Valarches’ street cred would have been considerably diminished had they lost, so it was altogether more serious for them. Julia reckoned she did fewer (if any!) double faults compared to the opposition, but Julia’s good serves had less impact than Margaux’s. One problem Liz and Julia had was that they would hit the ball seemingly out of reach of their opponents only to find Margaux got to it with plenty of time to line up a very awkward response, if not an outright winner. Elena apparently spent most of her time at the net, winning points but making the occasional volley error.
Julia and Liz did get to deuce at one point, but couldn’t convert it to a game. The result was the dreaded double bagel, won by the third seeds. But, as Julia pointed out, at least she and Liz warmed up Elena and Margaux for the next round, to be played that evening.
Elena in particular was cock-a-hoop with the win.
As there was no one else there, the match photo had to be a selfie. However, even Elena, ever enthusiastic about photos of jumping, couldn’t work out how to take a selfie of all 4 players jumping, so Liz and Julia declined. I’ve never seen Elena so high!!!!
Three out of four Men’s Singles quarter finals were played in the evening, with two of them starting out at 6 pm.
On court 1, there was a much anticipated clash of the 4th and 5th seeds, Olly Turner and Greg Lim. This seemed to be a particularly hard hitting match with Greg using a a number of flatter shots on serve and ground strokes to generate maximum pace, while Olly generally belted the ball as hard as he could with a little topspin on the ground strokes. Greg had a slightly higher error rate, and Olly took the first set 6-4.
In the second set, perhaps as a consequence of the cumulative exertions of the heavy game played by both in the first set, Greg’s error rate on serve increased slightly, which let Olly in to Greg’s service games a little more, and Olly won the set 6-2.
On court 2, the somewhat rusty sixth seed, Philip Reid, was drawn against the third seed, Alex Vallmajor. Philip took some time to get into the match, and to get his heavy serve and ground strokes working, while Alex played his normal consistent topspin game. The first set was somewhat uneven, with Alex taking it 6-1.
In the second set, Philip played with more consistency and seemed to approach the net rather more, though it didn’t necessarily win him the point all the time, as Alex’s has extremely good mobility came to the fore – although there is an example of him trying to smash Margaux later on. Alex won a much more competitive second set 6-4.
I hope Alex realises he has just beaten the still-reigning, one and only, West Heath Tournament Junior Singles Champion! We look forward to Philip’s work and family commitments enabling him to play rather more tennis next season and the rest of this season.
Following on from Philip vs Alex, the next match on court 1 was between Joseph Rigal, the 7th seed, and Richard Keep, the 2nd seed. Richard plays in first team matches and sessions with other team players when he is around.
According to his dad, Bruce, Joseph didn’t play much tennis during the 4 years he was at university in Chicago. However, on his return to the UK, Joseph wanted to make up for lost time, and plays at least 8 days each week, judging from the times I go to either West Heath or the Cumberland and he is invariably there – or so it seems. Not only that but his jobs have involved watching a significant quantity of tennis by top players. So it is perhaps to be expected that Joseph is improving significantly over time.
This was another match between two big hitters. Joseph goes for it on most shots. Richard serves big, though sometimes misses, then capitalises if he needs to. Some double faults by Richard allowed Joseph to break in the first set, whereupon Joseph kept his cool, winning the first set 6-4.
One big difference from previous times and matches is that, although Joseph did double fault and make mistakes in this match, he did not allow it to disturb his concentration for the next point, on which he was also more confident that his improved level of play should give him an edge.
In the second set, Joseph was playing really well, while Richard did not play to his capabilities, as he could not rely on enough cheap service points to make his service games easy. Joseph won the second set 6-1 for a 6-4 6-1 victory.
Either having a good memory (he certainly has compared to me), or perhaps having taken the trouble to look it up beforehand, during the match itself, Joseph was aware that, when he last played Richard, in 2019, the score was 6-4 6-1 to Richard. This acted as a particular spur to Joseph in the second set, to help Joseph keep up the pressure to secure the mirror image result. So the 2024 result wasn’t entirely co-incidence!
If you were wondering how both players ended up looking so fresh, be aware that the photo was taken at the beginning of the match, not the end!
The quarter final wins by both Joseph and Olly guarantee that there will be at least one second team player in the Men’s Singles Final on Saturday, as they now play each other in the semis.
The match on court 3 was the first of the Ladies’ Doubles semifinals between Margaux & Elena Valarche, third seeds and winners of the 2 pm quarter final, and Becca Vaughan &Katie Baston.
At the far end, Becca kicked off serving into an awkward sun, and was broken, with Margaux and Elena holding serve. It was very clearly easier to win points at the near end of the court. Elena adopted her usual position at the net, while Margaux made it look easy to cover the rest of the court. Becca and Katie hit the ball hard and tried not to make errors. But in the first set, Elena and Margaux were in pole position and stayed there until they took it 6-4.
Becca and Katie made fewer errors in the second set, to develop some momentum, while the Valarches could not avoid errors. Becca and Katie won the set 6-1.
In the match tie break the points were relatively even until around 5-4 to Becca and Katie. But they then put on the pressure and zoomed ahead to take it 10-6 to win the match 4-6 6-2 [10-6].
Waiting for the match involving Margaux and Katie, the last match to kick off was a Mixed Doubles quarter final between 6th seeds, Jasper Tresidder & Margaux Valarche, and 3rd seeds, Alex Vallmajor & Katie Baston.
Jasper and Margaux are school friends who have played together a lot before and understand each other’s game well. When Jasper is playing consistently he has a booming serve, and good groundstrokes, with an effective drop shot, and prefers to play a flashy hot dog shot if possible. Alex and Katie have not played together before. Alex is a very consistent hitter employing good pace and a lot of topspin. He is also a superb mover and retriever of lost causes, but Margaux succeeded in doing to him what he does to others – making them wonder how someone could possibly get to a seemingly out of reach ball then hit it back for a winner. Katie wins a lot of points from the pace of her serves and groundstrokes.
Given this was her third match of the day, Margaux didn’t seem to be at all tired. She played many good angled volleys and other winners.
The match was pretty tight, revolving around small margins. The first set went 6-4 to Jasper and Margaux, both playing pretty well.
The second set reached 5 all. In the final game Alex had a chance to put a crucial point away with a smash, and thought he had succeeded, but Margaux chased it down outside the deuce court, with Alex getting a second chance. Again a decent smash, but this came back again from Margaux who won the point and her side took the game, resulting in a 7-5 set. The final score was 6-4 7-5 to Jasper and Margaux.
The schedule for the matches during the Gourmet Dinners second week is as follows
The delicious Gourmet Dinners Monday through Thursday are mainly full now, so you would have to use special pleading with Sultan! More details of the Gourmet Dinners and Finals Day BBQ here.
The following matches were played today – half of them Mixed Doubles quarter finals, where the schedule is much tighter to get to the Mixed Doubles Final on Thursday night.
12:00 MXD QF Sultan Gangji & Jen Ananda-Rajan vs Joseph Rigal & Becca Vaughan
12:30 MD Peter Davies & Peter Farrell vs Alex Vallmajor & Steve Yoo
13:00 MXD QF Greg Lim & Marjan Denis vs Logan Mair & Posy Frederick
14:00 MS Steve Yoo vs Olly Turner
18:00 MS Logan Mair vs Geoff Isaacs
19:00 MXD QF Stephen Cooke & Alex Reyner vs Richard Keep & Natalie Milner
In the first Mixed Doubles quarter final match, Sultan Gangji & Jen Ananda-Rajan (/Ehr), the fourth seeds, were being challenged by Joseph Rigal & Becca Vaughan, the seventh seeds.
The match was of a high standard between first team players in form. In the first set, Joseph and Becca displayed high levels of fitness to retrieve a number of tactical lobs and drop shots, to deny Sultan and Jen and set up breaks.
In the second set, Sultan and Jen raised their game enough to be able to take it to five all, and then broke Becca, to take the set 7-5 to level the match.
But the effort must have taken its toll on them in the match tie break (first to 10), as Sultan and Jen conceded the first 4 points. The next two or three (depending on who you ask) points were more equal and strongly contested, but went to Joseph and Becca. It was then too late for Sultan and Jen. With a 7-0 lead behind them, Joseph and Becca weren’t going to let go, and went on to take the match tie break 10-2.
Not only did Sultan lose the match, but he was also the first person to upset his own draw seeding by losing to a lower ranked seed.
In a Men’s Doubles on grass court 3, Peter Davies & Peter Farrell played the fourth seeds Alex Vallmajor & Steve Yoo. The Peters can both play consistently, and have reasonable serves with some variety, but don’t have the big shots to induce errors from the seeds. Peter F in particular has a robust forehand. Alex and Steve have stronger games and took the net positions wherever possible, and a slight wind made it difficult to lob them accurately without hitting long or giving them a smash to put away. Peter D got broken, and then Peter F won his first service game, but that was it in the first set for the challengers. Alex took advantage of the slightly soft green patches on the deuce court side of the court nearest the spectator area, when serving.
In the second set, it was Peter D held his service once, for a 6-1 6-1 victory to Alex and Steve. But a good time was had by all.
In the second Mixed Doubles quarter final match, Greg Lim & Marjan Denis, 5th seeds played Logan Mair & Posy Frederick, top seeds and 2023 Title Holders. Apparently, there wasn’t much in the first set, with Logan and Greg serving big and dominating at the net (rather easier for Greg who has a few inches advantage in height over Logan). Marjan and Posy put in a solid doubles performance. But there were breaks and Logan and Posy won the set 6-4.
In the second set, Logan and Posy were more dominant. It looked as if Posy was playing particularly well, with few errors, good serves, decent groundstrokes, and thoughtful tactics. On Marjan’s serve Posy passed Greg down the line at least a couple of times when he tried to encroach too much into the middle of the court to get a cheap point. Logan was solid too, while Greg wasn’t consistently getting first serves in and served the occasional double. Logan and Posy took the second set 6-1 for a 6-4 6-1 victory.
It makes a great picture when everyone is in tennis whites, with even Greg making an effort by not wearing his orange tennis shoes! Shame I didn’t ask them to all do the same thing with their rackets!!
Is Logan right that we should adopt all white tennis dress? Was it dress policy deliberately agreed for this particular match just to make a point? I will doubtless find out!
Fresh from his victory above, in the Men’s Doubles, Steve Onesun Yoo played Olly Turner, the fourth seed, this time in the Men’s Singles. Steve has a strong serve and groundstrokes, but not the same consistency and pace as Olly, who was all over him. Olly seemed to be be hitting some particularly effective volleys after good approach shots too. Steve hit some good shots, and won a number of points, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Ollie from winning the match 6-1 6-0.
In the Men’s Singles, Logan Mair, the top seed, and Geoff Isaacs somehow manage to sneak in a late 6 pm booking for their Men’s singles without me noticing, so I wasn’t there. Logan afterwards described Geoff as a “tricky player”. Geoff can hit with a good pace and is pretty consistent, though not with the same “brute force” weapons that Logan can bring to bear on a match. Uncannily the score for Geoff went almost precisely the same way as in his Men’s Doubles match with Gideon Stone against Joseph Rigal and Ollie Turner. That is, Geoff found himself serving at 4-5 down to save the first set, but was broken to lose it 6-4. He then won no games at all in the second set for Logan (and Joseph & Olly) to win 6-4 6-0.
Unless one of the players took a selfie or someone else stepped in with a camera, there is no picture of the combatants.
There was a late weekend Mixed Doubles quarter final between Richard Keep & Natalie Milner, 8th seeds, and Stephen Cooke & Alex Reyner, 2nd seeds. This was another high quality mixed doubles match to round off the others played today.
Natalie joined recently, having been a member of Jen Ehr’s Oxford Uni tennis team squad previously. But she plans on going to Mexico in early August with her partner, so won’t be around for that long. She has a strong first serve when it goes in, but didn’t hit it in consistently enough, and found herself under a lot of pressure on the second serve, sometimes giving away cheap points. Otherwise her game was of a high quality.
Based on experience over the past few tournaments, Stephen deliberately avoided going in for the Men’s Singles this year so as not to play too much during the West Heath Tournament and pick up an injury which might prevent him from playing his best (or sometimes at all!) in the two doubles events. So far the strategy has worked well.
Both Richard and Stephen are tall and have some very strong first serves, which often don’t come back. But Richard can’t always deliver them consistently. Alex hits serves and groundstrokes with a lot of pace, but sometimes goes off the boil on the serve. She can also retrieve some balls seemingly impossible to get to.
Things started well for Richard and Natalie. Alex commented afterwards that she had agreed to play with Stephen on the basis that she expected him to hold his serve to take the pressure off her, and it didn’t help much that he lost his first service game! So Richard and Natalie went into a 3-0 lead. But Stephen and Alex broke back to get to 5 all, then took Natalie’s serve to win the first set 7-5.
For the girls serving at the far end, there was also the matter of the setting sun to deal with, as you can see from this photo.
In the second set, Natalie and Richard struggled to hold serve, and got broken, while Stephen and Alex came through pressure on their serves better. There were some amazing rallies, particularly Alex retrieving balls 5 yards out of the court, while avoiding hitting it back within reach of Richard at the net. But Stephen and Alex played the more consistently, and won the set 6-2 for a 7-5 6-2 victory.
We are all looking forward to Moira’s lamb tagine on Monday evening. Don’t forget to turn up at 6 pm to watch the tennis, whether you are booked to dine with us later or not!
The following matches were played on Saturday 20th July on the porous macadam court 4:-
13:00 MS Henry Lloyd-Hughes vs Greg Lim
14:00 MD Joseph Rigal & Olly Turner vs Geoff Isaacs & Gideon Stone
15:00 LD Moira Duncan & Marjan Denis vs Lesley South & Jane Boyle
After the heatwave conditions during Friday daytime, the grass courts were given a good watering to slake their thirst on Friday evening. Unfortunately then Saturday turned out not to be as warm as expected, and there was an unexpected shower on Saturday. The result was that some of the grass ended up waterlogged, and did not recover in time for the 13:00 start of tournament play on Saturday afternoon. So all three matches were played sequentially on hard court 4 to suit the avid spectators!
In the warm-up singles, Henry Lloyd-Hughes took on the fifth seed Greg Lim.
From seeing the second set, Henry seemed to be playing a very careful game, to avoid unforced errors. Greg is very consistent, and can aim shots with pace. He was always looking to hit with pace to the sidelines to force a shorter ball from Henry. Greg would then hit a strong approach shot to one side or other of the court, come in, and put away the next shot from Henry.
Generally, Greg’s approach worked, and he took the first set 6-2. Henry tried to keep the ball long from his own services, but Greg usually managed to turn to attack in the rally as he warmed up to the task. Greg did throw in a few double faults, but Henry wasn’t able to take advantage. Greg took the match 6-2 6-0.
Having successfully negotiated the first round Geoff Isaacs & Gideon Stone came across the more significant obstacle of Joseph Rigal & Olly Turner, the third seeds. Geoff and Gideon don’t make too many unforced errors, and Geoff can hit with pace and accuracy. Joseph and Olly hit rather harder, and can force errors from opponents, but make occasional bouts of mistakes.
The seeds won the toss, elected to serve, and roared into a 4-0 lead by hitting hot and breaking both the challengers. At this stage Geoff pronounced that his main aim was to avoid the double bagel, which was clearly a possibility.
Geoff and Gideon had a few words about tactics, to try to stem the flow, and broke the seeds immediately. Geoff then professed he was glad to have avoided the double bagel, but I unkindly pointed out that, if semantics allow a 10-0 loss in a match tie break to count as a bagel, Geoff’s strategy ought to be to lose the first set, having now won a game, as winning it would not prevent a double bagel in the subsequent two sets, but losing the first set would. Geoff agreed with the logic, but wasn’t convinced enough to adopt the strategy.
Subsequently, aided by a higher error rate from the seeds, Geoff and Gideon took another 3 of the next 4 games, to get back on serve and leave Geoff serving at 4-5 to save the set.
Geoff’s service game went to a number of deuces. Towards the end of it, the pressure was telling, because he was getting rather fewer first serves in. Eventually he got broken to lose the set, the seeds taking it 6-4.
Buoyed by this critical success, Joseph and Olly proceeded to win all the games in the second set for a 6-4 6-0 victory.
The last of the scheduled matches was a Ladies’ Doubles between Moira Duncan & Marjan Denis and Lesley South & Jane Boyle. Marjan is the hardest hitter and the most mobile of these, though Moira can put lot of pace on the forehand. But Lesley and Jane are tactical experts at placing balls beyond the reach of opponents. Lesley’s angled shots regularly leave opponents standing, and Jane’s lefty slice drop shots are very effective, even if you are expecting them, so they are a very tricky pair to beat. The strategy for Moira and Marjan would have been not to give balls to Lesley and Jane which would enable them to hit such shots, but this is easier said than done.
Moira played well throughout, being especially consistent on the medium height volleys at the net, though Jane was adept at drop shotting her on her short services. Marjan hit with pace and made the occasional errors. For those in the know, a good summary of the opponents from one spectator was that Jane and Lesley were, well, Jane and Lesley!
The first set was very tight, though breaks were traded. No one could gain an enduring advantage, and the set reached 6 games all. In the tie break, Marjan and Moira played well, and took it 7-4.
In the second set, breaks were again traded. Sitting next to me, Bruce Rigal commented that the set had all the hallmarks of going to another tie break. However, having broken their way back to 4 all, Moira and Marjan broke and Marjan held serve for a 7-67-4 6-4 victory.
These pairing definitely take the prize for the best post match photo team racket positions and body stance coordination – and completely unprompted!
Various people did knock up and play social tennis on the grass courts throughout, but they weren’t really playable for tournament matches.
Here are the matches played on Friday 19th July – all men’s singles matches!
17:00 MS David Cohen vs Geoff Isaacs
17:30 MS Alex Vallmajor vs Kris Engley
18:00 MS Jasper Tresidder vs Philip Reid
18:00 MS Luca Fioretti vs Richard Keep
19:00 MS Joseph Rigal vs Orhun Guly
In the first of the 5 Men’s Singles matches on Friday night, Geoff Isaacs played David Cohen. These are two seasoned singles campaigners.
David lives on the nearest corner so plays quite a bit. However, Geoff is the more hard hitting player, though David is very mobile and consistent.
Geoff’s generally strategy seemed to be to gradually force David towards the back of the court, while himself advancing closer to the net to hit a winner. Sometimes, David was able to pass Geoff, but more often than not, Geoff won the point. Geoff won the match 6-1 6-2 – a very popular score in this Men’s Singles round!
Kris Engley played Alex Vallmajor, the third seed.
It emerged later that Anne Sophie Capel had been at least partially responsible for Kris beating Kerry Karageorgis by a decent margin in the previous round. Playing in the same social four, Kerry had previously asked Anne Sophie what Kris was like, never having met him. Anne Sophie said he was 55 with two children, and rather busy to play very much. The evening before the match was Kerry’s wife’s birthday. Kerry was deciding whether or not to have another beer, and his wife cautioned him not to, given the match the following morning. But Kerry considered it was safe to do so, given Anne Sophie’s counsell! However, Kris is actually married with no kids, in his early forties and can hit a decent ball. So he beat Kerry 6-1 6-0. Anne Sophie was clearly thinking of someone else, or determined to sabotage Kerry’s chances!
In the match against Alex Vallmajor, Kris played a pretty good game. Alex tends not to go for outright winners early in a point, but rarely makes a mistake, and is relentless in being able to move someone around the court, until they are tired in the point and match, and start making errors.
This is what happened most of the time in this match. Alex induced errors from Kris, and by the end of the first set, Kris was breathing quite hard, having lost it 1-6. But in the second set, Kris stepped up his game, and it was a while before Alex broke serve. In fact I think he was also broken at one point. But the error rate statistics continued, and Alex won the match 6-1 6-3.
I was personally fascinated to see how the match went between the two lefties, Luca Fioretti and Richard Keep, the second seed. Against me, Luca used a variety of flat and leftie slice serves, which had considerable sidespin. He also can put considerable sidespin on groundstrokes and has a super 2-handed crosscourt backhand. He beat me 7-5 6-0.
Richard has a booming serve and some powerful groundstrokes, but was struggling somewhat with seeing the ball – particularly from the hard courts end of grass court 2. But, as a spectator, from the other end of the court, I was also finding it a little difficult to immediately pick up the flight of balls. Further, Richard was not serving that well.
The net result of all this was that the first set was extremely competitive, and Luca held his own into a set tie break. But Richard took this 7-4 for a 7-67-4 set win.
When asked after the match, Richard said that he started seeing the ball better in the second set. But how does one set about doing that? Either way, he played much better in the second set, taking it 6-0 for a 7-67-4 6-0 victory.
I was somewhat relieved that Richard had some of the same problems with Luca’s game that I did, at least in the first set!
Meanwhile, on court 3, Jasper Tresidder played Philip Reid, the sixth seed. Sultan clearly had a view on the likely outcome of the match from his seeding of Philip. But some of the spectators were seriously doubting the match would go this way, as Philip has not been playing that regularly recently, and Jasper is more consistent than before.
Both players are similarly tall (from the photo), with heavy serves and groundstrokes. Jasper is perhaps less consistent than Philip at his best, but Jasper plays regularly.
However, in the first set, Jasper seems to have been caught on the hop somewhat, perhaps by Philip’s wide wingspan and pace, as Philip took it 6-1.
In the second set, Jasper broke and was serving at 3-2 up to consolidate the break. But, from his remarks to spectators as he took a short break from the match, he didn’t seem to have full confidence that he could take the second set and the match. And so it proved, as he could not stop Philip taking the next 4 games for a 6-1 6-3 victory.
In the final match of the evening, Orhun Guly was challenging the seventh seed, Joseph Rigal, supported, as ever, by his father, Bruce, who has not entered the tournament this year, not being available for the second week!
As an occasional Men’s First Team player, Joseph has a much stronger and more consistent game than Orhun, but can go through occasional periods of lower concentration, with errors creeping in (as most of us do). Further, he can get very frustrated with this.
As an occasional Men’s First Team player, Joseph has a much stronger and more consistent game than Orhun, but can go through occasional periods of lower concentration, with errors creeping in (as most of us do). Further, he can get very frustrated with this.
Joseph was dominant in the first set, winning it 6-0. Mid way through the second set, it looked very much as if Orhun was about to be double bageled. But, I think on Joseph’s 5-0 serve, Joseph served a couple of double faults, and Orhun hit a great winner down the line on a service return, winning his only game of the match. Although frustrated by the interruption to his campaign of a smooth victory, Joseph then won the last game to take the match 6-1 6-0.
There were three Men’s Singles matches played in this period.
J P Doumeng played David Hirst, the eighth seed. Apparently the match was a pretty close run thing. In the early stages it looks like JPD was playing rather better than David.
In the first set, JPD got himself a double break up. David stepped up his efforts, and broke back, and ended up saving 3 set points to get to 5 all, then broke to take the set 7-5.
The second set was of a rather higher quality. This time JPD forced himself to 4-3 up, but David won the last 3 games to take the match 7-5 6-4.
Jasper Tresidder played Dan Dalton. Dan has a decent game, but Jasper has a booming serve (when it goes in) and some really heavy groundstrokes, but can be error prone. It looks like Dan mainly held his own in the first set, which Jasper won 6-3. But Jasper walked away with the second set to take the match 6-3 6-0.
Peter Farrell played the fourth seed Olly Turner. Peter is consistent and pretty mobile about court, but doesn’t have too many weapons to threaten Olly. Olly won the match 6-2 6-2.
In the Mixed, Olly Turner & Jane Boyle played Jasper Tresidder & Margaux Valarche, the sixth seeds. Jasper and Margaux used to attend the same school and were friends there, and this is not the first time they have played together in the mixed.
Note Margaux’s classic service technique in the photo.
Olly & Jane didn’t win enough of their own service games to threaten, and Jasper & Margaux won the match 6-2 6-2.
In the Mixed Doubles, Mark Webb & Lesley South played the seventh seeds Joseph Rigal & Becca Vaughan. Mark is a solid doubles player, but can’t match the raw pace of Joseph, who sometimes plays for the Men’s First Team. Lesley is excellent at placement, including superb angled volleys. Becca is a key member of the Ladies’ First Team with good pace and consistency.
Mark & Lesley had rather a stiff uphill battle to contend with, and could only win enough point for one game, losing 6-1 6-0 to the seeds.
You might think that it is up to the members to protect the West Heath turf from intruders. But it seems we have been getting a little help lately from a very friendly and sociable ginger cat who seems to had adopted us. You have to watch it to the end as the situation develops.
On Monday evening there was light, turning to heavy, rain, plus a few showers on Tuesday. Nevertheless, there were three matches played in this period – one of them over 2 days!!
Two matches were played in the Men’s Singles. The following match report is from Joseph Rigal, amended by Peter Davies.
Played over 2 days and on different grass courts, Gabriele Abatti played the seventh seed Joseph Rigal. Gabriele was a little rusty last winter when I played in a match with him, but has some unreturnable serves and shots, with a higher than normal error rate. But he has had months to shake off the rust now. Joseph has a strong game, generally very consistent. Gabriele defeated Joseph’s father Bruce in the 1st round last year, so Joseph was ready to avenge his father.
This was an epic men’s singles 1st round encounter, the only one played so far to go the full 3 sets.
Starting at 5pm on Monday afternoon on Court 2, Joseph broke early to take a 2-0 lead in the opening set, with the single break remaining the difference as it ended 6-4.
In the second set, breaks were traded back and forth multiple times, with the set ultimately culminating in a tiebreak. After Joseph saved a set point serving at 5-6, he serve-volleyed at 6-6 after the change of ends, narrowly pushing a forehand volley wide into the tramline to set up set point on Gabriele’s serve. The Italian duly took his chance, serving a strong unreturned serve to take the second set 7-68-6.
At the start of the third and final set, Joseph quickly went up a double break. At 7pm, after 2 hours of play, with Joseph serving at 4-1, 15-15, the heavens opened and the match was washed out.
Returning to the club on Tuesday at 2pm, Joseph and Gabriele resumed on Court 1 – the area close to the net on Court 2 was still sodden from the preceding downpour.
Both men held serve on resumption of play. Gabriele held to reach 2-5 down, asking Joseph the question by making him serve it out. But Joseph held his nerve by holding to love to see out a tough battle, watched on by father Bruce. Joseph won 6-4 7-68-6 6-2.
Steve (One) Yoo played Eugene Belin. Steve is a pretty useful singles player but doesn’t always play to his own potential and sometimes loses concentration. Eugene has a very consistent game, not making many unforced errors, so tends to have to be beaten. The match was played on a hard court.
Apparently Eugene played very steadily, forcing Steve to focus to win points. This went well for Steve in the first set, which he took 6-1. But in the second set, Steve got broken early, and was down 2-0 as the sun suddenly came out. This maybe helped him to focus before making a come back to take the second set 6-3 for a 6-1 6-3 victory.
Eugene was also on court in a Men’s Doubles where Eugene Belin & Frederick Barkhof took on the second seeds Greg Lim & Sultan Gangji. Greg and Sultan are established first team players with a strong and consistent game. Eugene plays consistently but not with the same pace as first team players. Frederick can play very accurately, with decent pace.
The first set had some close games, but, aided by a couple of friendly net chords, the second seeds the seeds took it 6-0. In the second set, the seeds were leading at the 3-0 changeover. Eugene was telling Frederick, but heard by all, that he had never lost 10 games in a row. Greg duly obliged with a couple of double faults, while Sultan had to resort to some social tennis shots which didn’t pay dividends with some great running by Frederick to take the game. In the end, Greg & Sultan won 6-0 6-2, but at least Eugene’s maximum losing streak is intact!!
There were a number of matches played over the weekend, and the events with the biggest draws are progressing nicely.
Unfortunately the weather Monday evening looks very dodgy, and Tuesday evening not much better. There is also a Ladies’ First Team match scheduled on the grass for Wednesday evening.
In a Sunday Men’s Singles, Marc Reid took on Greg Lim, the fifth seed. Marc doesn’t play that much, although he was practising quite a bit before the tournament with his brother Philip. Greg plays a lot, and was playing on Friday for the West Heath first team in a match at the Cumberland, against their fifth team.
Greg was too strong for Marc in the first set, and took it 6-0. At 3-0 up in the second set, as it didn’t seem it would alter the outcome, Greg kindly agreed to take a photo of four of us from a mixed doubles. Apparently the brief interruption gave Marc a chance to reset and hold serve, which resulted in a final score of 6-0 6-1.
In an early Sunday morning match starting at 8:30 am, Fred Davidson played Orhun Guley. Apparently the first set was very tight, with both players trying to play consistently and not give anything away. But at 5 all, Orhun broke Fred’s serve with better consistency and Orhun took the set 7-5. Fred tried to hit out more in the second set, but it resulted in more errors under pressure, and Orhun took the match 7-5 6-1.
The picture does include Orhun on the left (so you know what he looks like), but it is not Fred on the right. On the right is César Torres, an occasional visitor from Argentina who came to just play social tennis, following his last successful visit 12 years ago!
Every year, at this time of year we get many requests from around the world to play on our grass courts. We don’t know just how lucky we are!! Over this summer there have been requests from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, USA, France and Italy to name but a few.
Only one Men’s Singles first round match has yet to be scheduled.
Early Saturday afternoon, in the Men’s Doubles, Gabriele Abatti & David Hirst played Dan Dalton & Kerry Karageorgis. Gabriele and David play frequently for the men’s second team, and Dan and Kerry are a decent doubles pair, so it was expected to be an interesting battle. In the first set Gabriele & David broke Dan & Kerry twice, but were themselves broken once, taking the set 6-3. In the second set there was some good doubles played, but both sides were a little nervous of making errors. Matters reached 5 all before Gabriele & David broke to take the match 6-3 7-5.
Men’s Doubles Kerry Karageorgis & Dan Dalton vs Gabriele Abatti & David Hirst.
Late Sunday afternoon, Mark Webb & Paul Rubie took on Gideon Stone & Geoff Isaacs. Mark used to be second team captain, so has a decent doubles game, and Paul hits some good shots, but has had a dodgy back and hasn’t been able to play much recently. Meanwhile Gideon and Geoff have played together in the tournament since 2017, and are wily old birds with decent doubles games, fair consistency, and, in the case of Geoff, good pace too.
Viewed from afar, the match seemed to be a decent ding dong battle, but it turned out that Gideon & Geoff won the first set 6-1. In the second set, Mark and Paul took a couple of games, but the result was a 6-1 6-2 victory to Gideon and Geoff.
Only one first round (round of 16) match remains to be played in the Men’s Doubles, before the quarter finals start.
On Saturday, Eugene Belin & Elena Valarche took on the Mixed Doubles fifth seeds (and former Champions) Greg Lim & Marjan Denis. Elena is famous for her net play, and Eugene has a decent serve and some consistent ground strokes, as does Marjan. But Greg plays for the men’s first team and has a much stronger game, with an excellent eye and rarely makes mistakes. Further, he is well over 6 foot tall and highly mobile with good anticipation, so not much gets past him at the net.
The challengers were able to hold serve a couple of times in each set, but did not pose sufficient threat to upset the expected result, which was that Greg & Marjan won 6-2 6-2.
The well established tournament pairing of Richard Nightingale & Sally Tornow were drawn against the eighth seeds Richard Keep & Natalie Milner. Richard and Sally have entered the mixed together since 2010, so this may be their 15th appearance together. Richard has a decent serve and groundstroke game, while Sally is normally effective at the net. Natalie is a recent addition to the ladies’ first team, having previously been part of Jen’s Oxford University tennis team. Richard has played for the men’s first team for many years, and has appeared in the West Heath Tournament singles final more than once, but, until now, has never won it.
Despite the mismatch in credentials, Richard and Sally picked up one game in each set, but were unable to prevent the seeds advancing 6-1 6-1.
Peter Davies & Sabine Casparie played the second seeds Stephen Cooke & Alex Reyner. Peter (me) is enjoying playing on the grass this season and can hit some decent serves and strokes, but is making too many unforced errors. Sabine has sometimes played for the ladies’ second team, and served consistently. Meanwhile Stephen does a good simulation of being 7 foot tall at the net, though he isn’t quite that, really. Stephen never makes it through to the finals of all 3 events in the club tournament, though he never loses a match, because he invariably gets injured. So this year he decided not to enter the singles, to preserve himself for the doubles. Meanwhile Alex has a cracking serve and plays like she would give Stephen a good game of singles.
Sabine and Peter couldn’t force enough errors out of Alex and Stephen to get enough points for a game. Stephen was deadly anywhere close to the net, often playing unreachable angled volleys. The inevitable result was a 6-0 6-0 victory to the seeds.
Don’t forget to sign up on the list in the clubhouse for the delicious Gourmet Dinners Monday to Thursday 22nd to 25th July, and for the Finals Day BBQ in the evening of Saturday 27th July!
Alternatively you can email the West Heath LTC mailbox at westheathltc@gmail.com and we will add your name to the list (provided it is not yet full).
Names of attendees have been blurred out but are visible in the clubhouse.
Note that the menu for Lesley’s supposed “Thai” meal is below:-
Astute observers will notice that it will be, in fact, a Mexican meal, not a Thai meal!!!
Welcome to the 2024 Tournament and Match Reports. We hope you have great fun participating, watching, and reading about it afterwards!
In the first two days of the tournament, there has been decent progress in the Men’s Singles – the event with the largest entry and the most rounds, and the most tricky to keep on schedule. 4 matches were played and one walkover was granted.
Andrei Cristescu has had to withdraw, as he had to go away, to give J P Doumeng a walkover.
Ashish Nair took on the 8th seed David Hirst. Apparently the main differences were that David served rather better, and also kept his cool to wait patiently for an chance to win the point, rather than going for it and making errors. David won 6-1 6-2.
Gideon Stone took on the 6th seed Philip Reid whom I have observed practising assiduously with his brother Marc, in the run up to the tournament. I have no direct reports, but this was a second 6-1 6-2 victory to a seed.
Paul O’Flynn and Henry Lloyd-Hughes had a closer battle. I don’t know anything about Henry’s game. But Paul clearly took this match very seriously because he had a lesson with Michal immediately preceding it. Paul has a big serve, and likes to welly the ball at every opportunity, but this makes him somewhat prone to unforced errors. It sounds like he struggled in the first set, with Henry winning it 6-1. But the second set was an altogether closer affair – Paul possibly took a more measured and effective approach? It went to a set tie break, narrowly taken by Henry for a 6-1 7-68-6 victory.
Luca Fioretti played Peter Davies (me). Luca is a tricky left-handed player, with a variety of serves – heavy leftie slice, some top slice, and an excellent double handed (leftie) backhand from which he often hits winners if given a ball within his hitting zone. He is also pretty quick about the court, as am I, though some of that is anticipation. But he had not played on grass recently.
Although I served reasonably well, it took some time to get used to the Luca’s leftie game, and I rapidly found myself 1-4 down. However, it then became more obvious what to do, and I pulled it back to 5-4. At this point Luca seemed to get more of a feel for the grass, and stepped up his service pace. I hit some winners, but missed a few more under pressure from slice and swerve on some well placed shots, and couldn’t seem to get any more easy winners off the serve. The net result was that Luca reeled off 8 straight games in a row to take the match 7-6 6-0.
For a change, the weather was looking good, with only small showers forecast – not enough to prevent play on the grass courts which were cut shorter and re-lined on Friday specifically for Finals Day.
As usual, a sumptuous tea was prepared by everyone. This time, however, it was not all displayed at once, but instead replenished as people helped themselves. Tea was served in between the singles and the doubles matches, brought forward by the downpour.
Men’s Singles Final
This was contested between Logan Mair, the third seed making the singles final for the first time, and Marcio Sugui, the top seed who was also Champion in 2020 and 2021.
The match was ably umpired by Greg Lim, including an amusing incident where he inadvertently called a game for Marcio immediately after Logan had just won a point. Many thanks also to the 6 or 7 people who called the lines for the men’s singles and men’s doubles finals.
The two competitors have very different styles of play. Logan has a heavy first serve, and the capability of hitting some very powerful groundstrokes. He generally aims to advance to the net to get an opportunity to hit volley winners, but also makes some errors. Logan can also hit a variety of spin serves.
Marcio is a leftie and plays a lot in tournaments and team matches elsewhere. He also coached frequently to obtain his part 4 LTA coaching qualification, though, by marital agreement, he will no longer be coaching. As a result of all this regular play, Marcio is very consistent, and rarely makes unforced errors. He tends to wins points by accurate placement of the ball away from the opponent, rather than expecting the pace alone of his groundstrokes to induce frequent errors from his opponent. Marcio can also throw in some (top slice?) leftie spin serves to confuse opponents, particularly on grass. And he is very fit and fast around the court.
In the first few games it looked like Logan’s power game might overwhelm Marcio. But after a while Marcio adapted to Logan’s game. While Logan could often set up the situation from which to hit a potential winner, he subsequently did make errors. This, and some excellent placement winners gave Marcio the edge to take the first set 6-2.
In the second set Logan tightened up his game and made fewer errors, but still couldn’t stop Marcio from breaking. Marcio was up 5-2 when play on both courts was interrupted by a shower. On the resumption, Logan held his service, but could not stop Marcio from taking the match 6-2 6-3.
Marcio has now claimed the title of Men’s Singles Champion three times. But he has never beaten Cedric de la Chaise, who claimed the title a dozen times – compared to Sultan Gangji’s nine times. Marcio would very much like to beat Cedric to the title one year.
Ladies Singles Final
This was played between the third seed, Posy Frederick, and the top seed and 2022 Champion, Jen Ehr. The match umpire was Becca Vaughan, who kindly volunteered in the absence of the previously agreed official.
Posy plays a lot of squash as well as tennis, so has very good hand-eye coordination. At tennis, she has a solid game, but not a huge amount of experience playing singles on a grass court. However, she does seem to take advantage of the softer grass surface by either diving for the occasional shot, or at least ending up flat on the grass surface in trying to get to a shot.
Jen has very strong serves and groundstrokes, and plenty of experience on grass, as her mother, Sue Ehr, has been playing at West Heath and in the Tournament since at least 2004.
Posy made few unforced errors, and was able to force high short balls from Jen on a number of occasions, but often wasn’t able to put the next ball out of Jen’s reach to convert the opportunity into a winner allowing Jen to pass or lob. Jen hit a number of winners, and was generally lethal when she came to the net.
Jen won the first set 6-2, and was 5-2 up in the second set when the shower came. Just as in the men’s match above, Posy won one more game on the resumption before Jen claimed the title 6-2 6-3 – an identical score to that in the men’s singles.
Not only were the scores identical, but the ladies’s and men’s singles finished within a couple of seconds of each other. In an invidious position, I opted to photograph the men’s final players first, because of the larger centre court crowd for the men’s match. The ladies were very gracious about it after I promised faithfully to give them priority in the event that the two doubles matches finished simultaneously.
Men’s Doubles Final
This was played between third seeds and twice Men’s Doubles Champions (2020 and 2021) Sultan Gangji & Greg Lim, and the top seeds Logan Mair & Stephen Cooke. Logan has won the Men’s Doubles title before, with Cedric de la Chaise as partner.
The umpire was Joseph Rigal, and the team of linespersons called the lines.
Sultan and Greg are an experienced doubles partnership. Stephen is nursing a tennis elbow injury, and has withdrawn from the singles and mixed to play with Logan in the doubles. Logan already had the Mixed title from Thursday’s game, and was keen to add to it. Logan & Stephen were the clear favourites to win, putting pressure on Sultan & Greg.
Greg lost his first service game, which put more pressure on Sultan & Greg, and giving Logan & Stephen the leeway to play solidly throughout the set to win it 6-2.
In the second set, Greg & Sultan switched sides to make something different happen, which seemed to do the trick for a while, as the score reached 2 all. Greg was then 40-0 on his own serve. However Sultan & Greg ended up losing this game but broke themselves for 3 all. Sultan was then 40-0 up on his serve, but again the pair failed to convert, losing the game. In the last game, a particularly windy gust resulted in Greg missing a smash, which helped Logan & Stephen win the set 6-3 for a 6-2 6-3 victory. This was the third final to have a final score of 6-2 6-3.
Even if Sultan & Greg had one one of those 40-0 games, Logan & Stephen would probably still have taken a more fiercely contested set, but at least would have had something to think about.
Logan thus wins two titles in 2023, with the other Champion slots going to Marcio Sugui and Stephen Cooke.
Ladies Doubles Final
The Ladies Doubles Final was contested between Becca Vaughan & Bianca Gillam, the second seeds, and the top seeds Jen Ehr & Posy Frederick.
Barbara Thomas was the umpire.
Bianca plays solidly and Becca runs for everything. Posy also runs and, as in the singles, ending up performing one or two Beckeresque (as opposed to Becca-esque) lunges and dives on grass, for those of us who remember what that means. Jen hit her usual pacy serves and groundstrokes.
Despite the exertions of Jen & Posy in contesting the previous Ladies Singles Final, they were very much the stronger pair in the first set, taking it 6-1. The second set was only a little more even, with Jen and Posy taking it 6-2 for a 6-1 6-2 victory.
The result of this and the other finals is that Jen and Posy both won two events, with no one other woman winning anything.
Prizegiving
Thanks were expressed by Sultan and Moira to everyone involved with the tournament.
Alex Vallmajor’s father, Manuel, from Monaco, was asked by Sultan to present the prizes.
West Heath 2023 Tournament winners and runners up
Final thoughts
This is the 24th West Heath Tournament on which I have reported, and, while memory may dim, it has been one of the best, despite the weather. The standard and entertainment value of the tennis has been high, and everyone has pulled out all the stops to get matches played when rain threatened to derail the schedule. The food and drink have been excellent, and the organisation has gone pretty smoothly.
Not only that, but Sultan’s seeding of all the winners as top seed was impeccably performed.
The photos used in the 2023 Tournament reports are available here.
Additional, late, match reports and photos have all now been added
See you all at the West Heath Tournament next year, and most of you well before that.
The weather was relatively kind, and the outstanding men’s doubles semi final could be played on grass.
There was no Gourmet Dinner tonight, but Alex Vallmajor’s father Manuel kindly provided a mix of Spanish and other nibbles.
Here is the Order of Play for the West Heath Tournament Finals on Saturday 29th July 2023:-
The remaining semi final for the tournament was the men’s doubles semi-final which was played on Centre Court (grass court 2). The 4th seeds, Alex Vallmajor & Alan Calleja took on top seeds Logan Mair & Stephen Cooke in front of a partisan crowd of around a dozen, generally supporting the underdogs, as seems typical at West Heath.
Stephen has tennis elbow, and withdrew from the singles and mixed doubles event. However, he remains in the men’s doubles with Logan as he did not feel he could let him down. Alex generally plays for the second team, while Logan, Stephen and Alan play for the first team. All are consistent players, though Logan & Stephen probably have the edge in heavy serving.
Alex was broken early in the match, but, after a few games, Stephen also had problems with his serve and was broken, and Alex was then serving to give his side a chance in the set. The number of deuces in the game depends on who you ask(I wasn’t counting), but estimates vary between around a dozen and 18 or 19. Alex had game points, but double faulted more than once and eventually Logan & Stephen took the game and then the set 6-3.
At times, Alex & Alan struggled to put the ball away at the net, perhaps because of the lack of time to react to Logan & Stephen’s heavy groundstrokes. Logan & Stephen did not generally then give them a chance at a second volley. But, when at the net, Logan & Stephen generally hit the killer volley first time, giving them a significant edge. I also felt that Alex & Alan could have smashed one or two more high balls – those due to bounce just deep of the service line – instead of playing the safe ground stroke on them.
The second set was less even, with Alex & Alan holding serve only once, for a 6-3 6-1 victory to the top seeds, Logan & Stephen
Logan & Stephen now meet the wily pair of Sultan Gangji & Greg Lim in the final. Hopefully Stephen’s elbow will hold out, and the final might turn into a great tactical match.
With a bit of sun and a breeze on Finals Day, grass courts 1 and 2 could be in great shape for the finals:-
Around 40 people dined on Thursday’s tasty Lamb Tagine, prepared by Moira Duncan, who also provided the red fruits dessert. That is the last of the Gourmet Dinners, but don’t forget to sign up for the Finals Day Tea and Evening Barbecue – or contact Sultan if you can’t sign up by Friday.
There is now one only semi final left to play, at 6:30 pm on Friday, before the line up for Finals Day is complete:-
Although it stopped drizzling some hours before, the grass was really still too damp for play, though one match was played on grass court 3.
Mixed doubles final
The highlight of the evening’s matches was undoubtedly the Mixed Doubles Final between the 4th seeds, Alex Vallmajor & Bianca Gillam, and the top seeds Logan Mair & Posy Frederick. Last year, Logan & Posy were beaten in the final by ex-schoolmates Jasper Tresidder & Margaux Valarche, but Margaux is not available right now, as she has been working in Costa Rica, and is returning in October.
Played on hard court 4, the match was spurred on by a large, very excited and very involved crowd, generally supporting the underdogs, Alex & Bianca.
Both Posy and Bianca have strong games, as do Alex and Logan. Logan & Posy played the more consistently in the first set. Alex & Bianca played well, but didn’t always have the answers to the questions posed. There were some superb doubles rallies to the obvious delight of the crowd. But Logan & Posy took the first set 6-0.
The second set was far more even, with Alex & Bianca hitting a number of winners. On one occasion Bianco hit a super reflex volley from close to the net from a smash by Logan. But Logan & Posy got their noses in front and eventually took the second set 6-4 and take the match 6-0 6-4.
This is Posy’s first title, and she is also in the Ladies Singles Final vs Jen Ehr, and in the Ladies Doubles Final playing with Jen against Becca Vaughan & Bianca.
It is Logan’s second title, the first being the Men’s Doubles in 2017. He also plays Marcio Sugui in the Men’s Singles Final. He and Stephen Cooke are also in the Men’s Doubles semi final to be played Friday evening against Alex Vallmajor & Alan Calleja.
So Logan & Posy still have opportunities to win more events between them.
Semi finals of other events
On hard court 4, the men’s semi final at the top of the draw was between Richard Keep and Marcio Sugui. Both are lefties. Richard has a strong serve and shots and plays when he can, but professional commitments mean he is away from home a lot. Marcio plays a lot, and has a very low rate of unforced errors. Marcio is also capable of upping the pace on occasions.
In the rallies with Marcio, Richard hit a number of good serves and ground stroke winners which Marcio could do little about. But he couldn’t always control the necessary placement and depth needed to beat Marcio, so often made errors when forcing the pace, or when Marcio was able to put him under pressure. For his part, Marcio gave away very few free points. Richard thus struggled to hold serve, and Marcio won the match 6-1 6-1.
After some persuasion from Logan, Joseph Rigal agreed to play his men’s semi final against Logan Mair on grass court 3, instead of waiting for a hard court to become free. Only the area immediately behind the baseline at the west end of court 3 shows significant signs of wear, though the grass was still slightly damp. Thus, there could still be three matches on the go at once, allowing the evening schedule to be completed even though the grass was not completely dry.
Both Logan and Joseph were playing for their first place in the Men’s Singles Final. Over the past few years at the club, Joseph has been improving year by year after focussing less on tennis while previously at university in the USA. Joseph has a hard serve, and good groundstrokes, but can make more errors under pressure than Logan. Logan has a very fast “whack” type first service which is very difficult to get back, but quite often misses, and is consistent with heavy groundstrokes.
In the first set, the first few games went with serve, and the match reached 5 all. Logan then broke Joseph and took the first set 7-5. In the second set, Joseph found it more difficult to hold serve, while Logan was able to keep up the pressure to take it 6-1 for a 7-5 6-1 victory. Logan thus gets to play in the singles final for the first time, against Marcio Sugui.
On hard court 5, Posy Frederick and Marjan Denis resumed their ladies singles semi final. The match was suspended, on Wednesday, with Posy 5-0 in the lead, as the light rain became heavier and showed no signs of abating.
On the resumption, Posy won the additional game to take the first set 6-0. However, Marjan’s resolve stiffened, and the second set was much closer fought. Marjan won quite a few rallies with some strong groundstrokes and placement, but Posy was a little more consistent when it mattered and eventually closed out the match 6-0 6-4.
Posy thus faces Jen Ehr, the top seed, in the final on Saturday. That will be one to watch!
The next match on hard court 5 was the first of the two men’s doubles semi finals – the one in the bottom half of the draw, between third seeds Sultan Gangji & Greg Lim, and second seeds Joseph Rigal & Olly Turner. This match was a partial repeat of last year’s semi final when Joseph Rigal & Alex Vallmajor beat Sultan Gangji & Greg Lim 3-6 7-5 [10-7]. So revenge may well have been in the collective mind of Sultan & Greg.
However, Joseph & Olly got the upper hand in the first set, to win it 6-4, but could not sustain that momentum in the second set. Sultan & Greg know how to change tactics to swing matches, and took the second set 6-2. With the momentum behind them, Sultan & Greg also took the 10 point match tie break 10-4 to go through to the final, where they will meet the winners of Friday night’s match, either Alex Vallmajor & Alan Calleja, or Logan Mair & Stephen Cooke.
The weather forecast was miserable – light rain starting 5:30 pm and getting worse as time went on. As a result, only four brave souls attempted to play. More on that later.
However, there was still a sumptuous Gourmet Thai Dinner professionally prepared, and presented by Lesley, with Coconut Cake pudding provided by Anne Sophie.
On Thursday, Moira will be providing Lamb Tagine and pudding.
The order of play for Thursday will be:-
Since the grass was already slippery and the drizzle showed no signs of stopping, Jasper Tresidder and eighth seed Joseph Rigal started a men’s singles quarter final match on hard court 4. The court was a little slippery, and Jasper in particular slid into a few shots. Jasper has a particularly heavy serve, if a little inconsistent, but the damp court surface and heavy, wet balls, must have slowed that down somewhat. Joseph also has a heavy serve, but can rely on more consistency in most shots nowadays, as he plays more than Jasper.
Joseph was more consistent and able to cope with the conditions in the first set, which he took 6-1. The rain was getting steadily heavier, and that, and the likely necessity of playing on a hard court for a resumption on the Thursday, resulted in the retirement of Jasper, to give Joseph the match 6-1 (retired).
On hard court 5, 4th seed Posy Frederick and 2nd seed Marjan Denis started a ladies singles match in light rain. In the conditions, Posy broke Marjan more than once, to lead the first set 5-0. The match will resume on Thursday, hopefully on grass court 1.
Thanks go to Rachael and Lara for the always delicious, and now traditional, fish pie and Pavlova.
Tonight’s (26th July) Gourmet Dinner will be Thai cuisine, created by professional chef Lesley South, as follows:-
Anne Sophie will provide “coconut cake” pudding.
The order of play for today will be weather dependent, and the initial schedule is:-
The incomplete men’s singles match between David Hirst and Joseph Rigal, the 8th seed, resumed on hard court 4. On Monday night, dusk had forced a postponement after Joseph had won the first set 6-4.
This was a hard fought hum dinger. Unfortunately, with all three grass courts in use from 6 pm, it was not possible for the spectators to watch it closely. There were quite a few breaks in the match, with both players, and particularly David, taking risks to hit winners to gain the upper hand.
After his loss of the first set, David bust a gut in the second set, and gained the upper hand, to take it 6-3, preparing the way for a final set show down.
David started to run away with the finals set, reaching to reach a 5-2 lead. David crucially then accumulated four match points in total. In the most exciting of these, David hit the net cord and the ball rolled along it before deciding to bounce back on David’s side to deny him. Unfortunately for David, Joseph won all of David’s match points and levelled the final set at 5 all.
Unfortunately for David, this provided some momentum for Joseph, and David had little opportunity to regroup before finding himself 0-40 down in the next game. He pulled back two break points but Joseph took the game and was then able to serve out the match. 6-4 3-6 7-5.
David’s partner, Elena Pavlidou, went to console David. Commiserations to David, but, having come so close, he will surely be back fighting even harder next year, with more consistency to call on. Watch this space!
On grass court 1, the third seed, Elena Valarche was challenging the top seed and 2022 champion Jen Ehr (strictly now Jen Ananda-Rajan). Elena’s strategy was the same as usual – come in an occupy the net position and force an opponent to either pass or lob her. Meanwhile, for whatever reason, Jen’s first service speed did not seem quite as high as in some of the aces she had served the previous day. Jen is also amply capable of hitting hard to the baseline and coming in on a short return.
In the first set Elena’s strategy yielded some points, but not games. In the second set she had a little more success, with one or two of Jen’s passing shots straying into the tramlines. Jen won the match 6-0 6-2.
You can see why Jen might favour the jump smash!
On grass court 2, there was a ladies’ doubles semi final between the old guard players and third seeds, Marjan Denis & Lesley South, and the new, second seeds, Becca Vaughan & Bianca Gillam. Lesley’s speciality is the short or angled shot, especially when she plays it close to the net. Given the opportunity, she can drop the ball over the net or create an angle which opponents generally cannot get, to the obvious delight and applause of the crowd at the time. Marjan provided power baseline groundstroke support to elicit the weak shots from the opponents for Lesley to put away. It is not clear that first team players Becca & Bianca have come across enough players with shots quite like Lesley, and they lost a number of points by giving her the opportunity to make them.
So much so, that the score reached 5 all then 6 all in the first set, bringing on a tie break. However, Becca & Bianca walked away with the tie break, without losing a point, to take the first set 7-6⁷⁻¹. In the second set, matters proceeded similarly, though Becca & Bianca were a little more wary of feeding Lesley when she was at the net. They won the second set 6-3 for a 7-6⁷⁻¹ 6-3 victory to Becca & Bianca.
On grass court 3 was a men’s doubles round of 16 match in which Paul O’Flynn & Jasper Tresidder challenged the top seeds Logan Mair & Stephen Cooke. Stephen has had tennis elbow, and had to withdraw from the singles and mixed, but could not let Logan down in the men’s doubles. Stephen does tend to get injured during the tournament – he says he is not used to playing that number of matches with the tournament matches on top of the regular team tennis etc. Fortunately, Stephen’s elbow is much improved.
Paul & Jasper have some great serves and shots which are often winners, but they have to go in, which they don’t always do. Logan & Stephen retain a high degree of consistency with heavy shots in a long rally, so that scenario tends to strongly favour them, especially since it is more difficult for the opponents to hit heavy shots when under pressure.
The result of all this was that, though Paul & Jasper hit winners and played some fabulous points, there weren’t enough of them to threaten the service game dominance of Logan & Stephen, who won the match 6-2 6-2.
I particularly like this photo, in which Stephen undoubtedly wins the prize for the best smile!
The second match on grass court 1 was a fascinating men’s singles quarter final match between 6th seed Richard Keep, and fourth seed Greg Lim. On paper you would fancy Greg to win, though singles is not his favourite event. Richard is a leftie who is at least as tall as Greg, but doesn’t play as much as Greg, often due to performance work commitments. Greg has accuracy and pace in all shots. Richard has good ground strokes and a particularly booming leftie serve with a very clean action. He exploits his height to make it very difficult for an opponent to return serve.
Richard serving against Greg. Photo courtesy of Susan Grossman.
In the first set, Greg had a distinct advantage, with a higher level of consistency, and took it 6-2. But Richard’s consistency and accuracy improved as the match progressed, resulting in a tighter match. Richard took the second set 6-4 to set up a deciding final set, in which he was able to maintain the edge to win 2-6 6-4 6-4.
On the centre grass court there was a mixed semi final between Joseph Rigal & Becca Vaughan, and top seeds Logan Mair & Posy Frederick. The seeds played consistently throughout. Joseph put down some heavy serves and groundstrokes, but did not play quite so consistently, possibly due to his mental and/or physical exertions during the last two sets of his resumed men’s singles match above. Becca played a solid game, and chased everything until it had bounced twice. She particularly has great forehand topspin shots from the deuce court to keep the ball away from an encroaching net player such as Logan. But it was noticeable she played most shots from the ad court back to Logan when he was also in the ad court, when a down the inner tramline lob over Posy at the net would have put more pressure on the opponents and possibly set up an interception by Joseph at the net.
Logon & Posy took the first set 6-2. The second set was tighter, but the seeds still took it, for a 6-2 6-4 victory.
On grass court 3 the second match was another mixed semi final, between 4th seeds Alex Vallmajor & Bianca Gillam, and second seeds Sultan Gangji & Jen Ehr. Alex must have been well recovered from his nearly two hour men’s singles match against Marcio Sugui the previous night.
I didn’t see the match, but hope to get a report later. However, the match was a bit of an upset because Alex & Bianca overturned the seedings to take it 6-3 6-2, to set up their place in the Mixed Final on Thursday.
That is it for Tuesday’s matches. Let us hope the weather forecast improves for Wednesday evening.
Firstly many thanks to Penny, Ann and Sabine for the delicious gourmet dinner. Many people were observed going back for seconds of the lasagne despite large first servings.
Tonight’s gourmet chefs are Rachael and Lara, presenting the traditional fish pie and pavlova.
On Wednesday, Lesley will be preparing an authentic oriental Thai meal …
.. and Anne Sophie will follow up with coconut cake.
Here is the order of play for Tuesday evening:-
Five and a half matches were played on Monday evening, including two on the nearly, but not quite, dry, grass court 3.
Two matches went on the hard courts 4 and 5 around 6 pm. More later of the match on court 5.
Hard court 4 kicked off with a mixed doubles quarter final. Brian Coffey & JennyWarren took on the second seeds Sultan Gangji & Jen Ehr. Brian came out with a number of good deep forehands, though some of them went long. Jenny played very consistently from both the baseline and net and didn’t make many unforced errors. Meanwhile Jen threw down some very heavy serves (some of which Brian could not get back) and hit pacy groundstrokes, while Sultan was poaching heavily at the net where possible.
Brian & Jenny got the edge on a number of points, with Brian forcing errors from Sultan, and Jenny putting away some angled shots, though not all of them went in. But Sultan and Jen were able to get to the other shots and return them with interest, as well as hitting winners and forcing errors themselves. When there was a decision to be made on their side of the net, then it wasn’t Sultan calling the play either! In the first set Sultan & Jen soon got 3-1 up, and took it 6-2, also taking the second set 6-2 for a 6-2 6-2 win.
The next match on hard court 4 was a ladies doubles semifinal for which Jenny and Jen stayed on court. Jenny Warren & Moira Duncan took on the top seeds Jen Ehr & Posy Frederick. Jenny & Moira generally tried to position themselves on the service line and return almost everything that Jen and Posy threw at them, retrieving a number of wider, higher and shorter balls. They also made very few unforced errors, though Jen & Posy made even fewer. Most points were probably 10 shots or more. Jen & Posy were rarely forced into errors and were highly mobile, hard hitting, and generally looking for the spaces to hit winners. Towards the end of the match they started to exploit the space in between Jenny & Moira to good effect a few times.
Despite the number of shots played, Jen & Posy won a large enough majority of the points that there weren’t any games in the match for Jenny & Moira. But the points tennis was closer than the score indicated. Jen & Posy were made to work for it.
Meanwhile, on hard court 5 in parallel with the above, there was the much anticipated men’s singles quarter final between 5th seed Alex Vallmajor and top seed Marcio Sugui. These two are friends and hitting partners. Marcio, a leftie, was concerned about playing Alex because the two of them have some very close games. And not only does Alex hit with leftie Marcio, but he also plays regularly with another couple of lefties, so is well used to them, unlike most players (whether left or right handed!)
They started proceedings with a leisurely knock up, at the same time as the knock up and match on court 4, much to the annoyance of one of the tournament referees when she found out! Once play started, at first Marcio was trying to hit out, and a few breaks were exchanged. But the match turned into a masterclass, from both, of how to hit deep topspin forehands and slice backhands, with pace, but with very few errors. Occasionally someone might throw in a topspin backhand. Occasionally there was a shorter ball bringing someone in to the net, but it often morphed into a baseline exchange again.
It looked like Marcio was the better able of the two to move the ball around court without error in the first set, as he took it 6-2.
Hard court spectators between matches
But Alex dug in for the second set, while Marcio was less adventurous, and Alex got the upper hand there, to take it 6-2. By this time it was around 8:10 pm, and, on the track record so far, it looked like the match might not finish before the gloom got too profound and play had to stop.
In theory you are supposed to play a third set in the singles events, but tournament referee Sultan offered three alternatives:-
Match tie break – first to 10 points etc.
Start the third set at 2 all, and play a normal tie break set from there
Play a normal tie break set starting at the usual zero zero games
Marcio wanted a quick match tie break, but Alex thought he would do better with a normal full set, so they started on one of those.
Marcio decide to hit out once more, as otherwise the match might never finish. Although Alex got one game, Marcio soon broke and established a run of games to enable him to take the match 6-2 2-6 6-1, but only just in the nick of time before it really got too dark to play. Perhaps Alex needs to eat more carrots? So from being one of two matches first on, this match was also last off. Shame it wasn’t played on grass!
Meanwhile, since Alex and Marcio were camping on hard court 5 and hard court 4 was busy with other matches, 7th seed Olly Turner and 3rd seed Logan Mair agreed to use a very slightly damp grass court 3 for their men’s singles quarter final match.
Both play a pretty decent singles game, but Logan is regarded as the stronger.
Olly hit a number of winners and forced errors from Logan, but Logan was the more consistent. Unlike in the previous round, Logan’s heavy first serve, whee he just whacks the ball, mainly went in. There were one or two slips on the damp grass, but nothing too worrying.
In the first set, Logan broke twice, but Olly broke back once, to allow Logan the set 6-4. In the second set there was only one break, and Logan took the match 6-4 6-3.
Following on from the men’s singles, a mixed doubles match was then played on grass court 3. Jasper Tresidder & Elena Valarche played the top seeds Logan Mair & Posy Frederick.
There was only one break in each set. In the first set Elena was broken, and in the second set Jasper was broken, which led to a 6-3 6-4 victory for Logan and Posy.
Following the second match on hard court 4, a men’s singles round of 16 match started between David Hirst, and the 8th seed, Joseph Rigal. This was nothing like the careful singles still going on on hard court 5, because both David and Joseph like to welly the ball. They are both fully prepared to smack the ball with no spin to get extra pace, and to take a chance (hopefully more than 50%) that it is more likely to become a winner than to lose the point with an error. The first set was very close. In the eventuality, Joseph made fewer errors than David and took the first set 6-4.
But by the end of the set around 8:45 pm, the gloom was deepening as dusk approached (9 pm) and it was clear that any continuation was just going to be an eyesight lottery to scramble the opening games in the second set when it finally would resume the following day. So common sense won out, and the second set was rescheduled until Tuesday at 5:30 pm on the same hard court.
Although the grass courts were mainly too damp throughout to enable competitive tournament tennis, the rain held off sufficiently to allow play on the hard courts. Both of these were pressed into play where necessary, and ten crucial matches were played, plus one walkover. By the end of the day the grass had dried sufficiently to allow one ladies match to be played on it.
Thank you to everyone who bust a gut to play outstanding matches, which means the tournament is more or less back on schedule for the final five days of play.
Play started at the crack of dawn at 7 am when Jack Arnold & David Hirst played Alex Vallmajor & Alan Calleja, the fourth seeds. A brief match report from David follows:-
“Our power game ultimately lost out to the consistency and excellent net play of our opponents, and we lost 6-4, 6-1”
Then around 8:30 am, partners David Hirst & Elena Pavlidou played Jasper Tresidder & Elena Valarche. Jasper & Elena won 6-1 6-3. The match report from Jasper is to follow.
A morning mixed was also played between Nic Sweeting & Liz Hill and the top seeds Logan Mair & Posy Frederick. The match report from Nic Sweeting follows:-
“A highlight of the mixed doubles saw Liz and Nic (unseeded) take on the top seeds Logan and Posy. The match took place on hard court 5 due to waterlogged grass. Following his exit from last year’s singles, Nic had received valuable advice from finalist Marcio on his grip (namely to change it) and had trained intensively on his serve, so opted to serve towards the Finchley Road.
The service practice seemed to be paying off with some fine serves skidding into the chain link fence putting Nic and Liz up in the opener, but Logan and Posy fought back from game point down to break. The wet court slowed the balls and there followed some slanted winners from Nic when he advanced on short balls to drive them between his opponents or, unchivalrous at the net, at Posy. Posy took Logan to task following a near collision for his ambiguous cries of ‘Okay, okay’, unsure whether her partner meant ‘it’s okay, it’s mine’ or ‘you’re okay to hit that’. But despite Liz and Nic winning a couple of points each game and making few unforced errors, Posy’s accurate winners into the tramlines, imperious net play and angled volleys from Logan, proved decisive as they took the first set 6-0.
In the second set, Logan and Posy’s communication and serving improved still further. Liz kept firing back returns while Nic, receiving inside the baseline, began risking unforced errors in an attempt to beat the person at the net. Rallies became longer with some eye-catching reflex shots, and in his fourth and final service game Nic managed to hold to avoid the double bagel. The thrilling encounter ended 6-0, 6-1 to the top seeds, with onlookers sagely agreeing it looked closer.”
The first of the post-noon matches on hard court 4 was a mixed between Bruce Rigal & Moira Duncan and the fourth seeds Alex Vallmajor & Bianca Gillam. The following match report is from Moira’s verbal report.
Alex is very fast around the court and so consistent that he hardly appears to miss. Bianca is also very consistent and highly effective at the net.
The match was played in quite blustery conditions, though the wind seemed to settle down a little for subsequent matches.
Before either Bruce or Moira had managed to hold their serve, Alex & Bianca had raced into a 4 love lead, but then Bruce held to take the only game in that set for his side. In the second set, Bruce & Moira took advantage of a couple of double faults in the first game to break Bianca, and managed to pick up another game somewhere else. Thus Alex & Bianca won 6-1 6-2.
The next match on hard court 4 was a men’s doubles quarter final between Peter Davies & Mark Webb, and the third seeds Sultan Gangji & Greg Lim, who both play in the Mens I team, of which Sultan has now been captain for 49 years and surely must stay on for another season at least, to get to his half century!!!
Greg not only has almost perfect timing, but is also a demon at the net and is something like 6 foot 2, so it is difficult to keep the ball away from him or to lob him. Mark has some pacy deep forehand groundstrokes, and Peter directed a number of serves well and returned reasonably, but Peter & Mark were just far more error prone than the far more experienced pair at the other end, and it was impossible to keep the ball away from Greg at the net all the time.
Greg served the first game, which started auspiciously for Peter & Mark with a couple of break points. But Sultan & Greg weren’t going to let the break happen if they could avoid it, and clawed the game back to deuce, and then took the game. There wasn’t much joy for Peter & Mark until the second set, when they put together enough points for their one game of the match. Sultan & Greg won the match 6-0 6-1.
In parallel, on hard court 5, Andrei Cristescu played Geoff Isaacs (no relation to Penny) in a very tight match. Both are very consistent, and at 5 all in the first set, it looked like the rallies and set would last indefinitely. At some point, Geoff tried to inject some risk and return into the rallies. According to Andrei, Geoff played some great drop shots, which gave Andrei something different to look at. Whatever, it was, it seemed to do the trick, as Geoff went on to break Andrei and take the set.
The second set was similarly close and extended, but Geoff again got the upper hand eventually to win it 6-4 for a 7-5 6-4 win, after nearly two hours of tennis.
At the completion of the match another problem became crystal clear. Alex Vallmajor had hung around after the previous mixed, so that he could play the next round against the winner of Andrei and Geoff. Geoff said he could not play a further match as his grandchildren (and their great grandfather, his father) were in attendance, and deemed himself to have scratched at match point. But Andrei wasn’t in a position to play the next round either, so that would not have worked. Geoff was deemed to have won then withdrawn, to give Alex a walkover into the quarter finals, which resulted in him feeling somewhat dejected that no one wanted to play him!
However, we are all looking forward to his match against Marcio Sugui at 6 pm on centre court on Monday (24 July).
The next match on court 4 was a singles between Matias Piazza and seventh seed Olly Turner. Both are pretty consistent on a hard court, and Matias often put himself in a position to hit a winner. But Olly plays for the second team and can summon up an extra measure of pace when required.
The first four games were played with no risks taken, as if no one wanted to lose the point and the score reach 2 all. But Olly decided that he needed to make something happen, so started to go for it more, injecting more pace, which shortened the points and resulted in more errors from both. But Olly had the upper hand, and started to hit more winners, taking the set 6-2. This continued into the second set which Olly won 6-1 for a 6-2 6-1 victory. The consensus among some of the spectators was that Matias needs to play more games against players of a higher standard than himself to reach the next level.
On hard court 5, the tall Gabriele Abatti had to play the tournament top seed Marcio Sugui. Before joining West Heath at the start of this season, Gabriele has had six years off tennis, during which he had done some boxing, including Oxford vs Cambridge varsity matches. The consensus is that he has steadily grown in consistency since joining, and that there is more to come. Marcio is a leftie, whose eventual objective is to invest in his own tennis academy in Brazil(?).
From the distance of the grass court, it looked to be a very competitive match. But Marcio took it 6-0 6-1. Gabriele commented that he had put the ball maybe 20 cm out on a number of critical points, which made it very difficult to keep up with Marcio.
A mixed quarter final match followed between Joseph Rigal & Rebecca (Becca) Vaughan and the third seeds Greg Lim & Marjan Denis. The men are both strong hitters, though Greg intercepts better at the net, and is a little more consistent. Marjan has a good all round game, but Becca is more accurate. From the beginning it looked as if the outcome of the match might depend on whether Becca could keep the ball away from Greg when he was at the net.
The first set was pretty even up to 5 all, with Becca and Marjan each broken once. But then Becca was broken again, to give the seeds the first set 7-5. In the second set the challengers Joseph & Becca upped their game, and took it 6-3. The momentum was thus with Joseph & Becca going into the match tie break. During a nervy start for both sides, Joseph & Becca reached 7-2 before Greg & Marjan won a string of points to pull it back somewhat. Joseph still ended up on serve at 9-6 up with two points to serve to close it out. On the first, Marjan returned well and the seeds won the point. But on the second, after a good return from Greg, Joseph (I think) hit a ball to Marjan that looked marginally out. Greg called “leave” to Marjan, but it was too late, and she could not take her racket away from the shot, which ended up in the side netting. Joseph & Becca thus won 5-7 6-3 [10-7] in a very tight match.
Greg Lim had already played two matches (men’s and mixed doubles) in the day, but was now required to step up to a men’s singles match against Alex Taylor. Both have decent games, but Greg plays for the Mens I team while Alex plays for the Mens II. However, Alex has some very useful shots.
Alex view was that Greg’s strategy had been to pummel his forehand, especially on the serve, and Greg seemed to agree with this. In general it worked, as Greg won the match 6-2 6-3.
The last match of the day was a ladies’ doubles, and was actually played on grass, which had just about dried out by then. Julia Abbot & Liz Hill were playing the second seeds Becca Vaughan & Bianca Gillam. In the first set, Julia and Liz managed to hold serve once and broke Bianca, but did not manage a break in the second set. Becca & Bianca won 6-2 6-1.
Phew! I think that is all the match reports from yesterday! See most of you this evening.
The West Heath LTC website uses cookies for improved functionality. We use cookies as part of the WordPress site, and for web visitor analysis via Google Analytics. OKRead More
Privacy Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
