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!
