As the UK hit record temperatures of 40.3 degrees C, which are 1.6 degrees C higher than the previous record in 2019, some brave souls with plenty of liquids to hand still turned up to play. Fortunately the humidity was low today (less than 20%).
There were two men’s doubles matches and one men’s singles match played.
The first men’s doubles was between Gavin Stanton & Leo Colle vs Joseph Rigal and & Alex Vallmajor. Joseph and Alex play in the men’s second team, of which Joseph is now the captain. Gavin and Leo don’t play regular team tennis, so are not match tight though Leo is tall and has a decent first serve. The seeds won 6-1 6-1. (Regrettably no picture)
After his exertions in the doubles, Leo Colle next had to play Steve Yoo in the singles. Both have decent first serves, and Steve can play pretty well, but it seemed as if he was a bit rusty for this match. Meanwhile Leo was well warmed up from the doubles, although presumably not as fresh, and he was the more consistent of the pair. In the first set, matters were pretty even up until 5 all, but then Leo broke to win the set 7-5.
It wasn’t that obvious what changed that much in the second set, though Leo seemed to be coming in more, including later in the rallies on Steve’s serve and Steve just didn’t get any form of passing shot or lob going. Leo won the set 6-1 for a 7-5 6-1 victory.
The last match to finish was an exciting men’s doubles between Nicholas Sweeting & Eugene Bellin vs Gideon Stone & Geoff Isaacs. Geoff and Gideon are wily, experienced players while Nic and Eugene had not played together before. Eugene has a good variety of service and good groundstrokes when on form. Nic hasn’t played so much competitive doubles, though he did play in the second team the other day. Meanwhile Geoff and Gideon are both consistent, while Geoff has a particularly good forehand.
In the first set, Gideon and Geoff very much had the upper hand, winning it 6-1. However, the second set was an altogether different matter. Although Gideon and Geoff were a break up with (I think) Gideon serving for the match at 6-5, Nic and Eugene were 0-30 up, though Gideon and Geoff levelled it to 30 all, but Nic and Eugene were not to be denied, and took the set into a (set) tie break in the increasing gloom. Had they won it, there probably would have had to be a resumption at another time, as the light was going. But Gideon and Geoff put pressure on to force a few errors and won the tie break 7-4 to take the match 6-1 7-57-4.
