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.
The current state of the draws is 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!
