There were eight matches played today.
Although I couldn’t be there due to an evening choral concert and afternoon rehearsal, the reports were that the club was buzzing and that all of Greg’s tea got eaten up!! There were only one or two matches with 6-0 or 6-1 sets, so much entertainment to be had.
In the Men’s Singles, Kris Engley faced Stephen Cookes, top seed and 2025 champion. I am sure Stephen didn’t have it all his own way, but he did win 6-0 6-1.
Also in the Men’s Singles, J P Doumeng played Ben Torns. It looks like J P could not hold his serve, as Ben won 6-2 6-2.
In the first match in a Men’s Singles match chain, Adi Bhagwat played Federico Mondelli. Federico won 6-2 6-2.
In a subsequent match between Federico and Charlie Bergevin, Charlie won 6-2 6-3.
In the Ladies’ Singles, Alex Reyner beat Marjan Denis 6-0 6-1.
In the first round of the Mixed, Joe Rigal & Becca Vaughan, the second seeds, beat Mark Webb & Lesley South 6-1 6-1. Lesley mouthed some words of wisdom about the match on the few seconds of motion photo I received, but the camera didn’t pick up the audio!
In the second installment of this match chain in the Mixed, Dan Angel & Margaux Valarche in turn had to face Joe Rigal & Becca Vaughan, the second seeds. This match was much tighter than the match above, but ended up representing another blow to Sultan’s seedings for 2026 when Dan and Margaux won 6-4 6-3.
Also in the Mixed, Richard Keep & Molly Hiebert had to face Sultan Gangji & Jen Ananda-Rajan, the fourth seeds. I wish I had seen this one. Sultan and Jen won it 6-2 6-4.
The two matches above took place side by side on grass courts 1 and 2, as can be seen from the photo above.
