The Order of Play is now published here for Monday to Thursday of this week and this link will be kept up to date.
The current version is below.
Monday’s delicious Gourmet Dinner will be Fish Pie from Rachael, with a dessert of Pavlova from Lara.
The big distraction to the Sunday tennis was the Farewell Tea organised for Michal Forys. Believe it or not, Michal has now been West Heath club coach for 18 years, during which he has also been a key player in the men’s first team. He now has three young children, two of whom came to the club, as did Michal’s wife, for the first time!
Michal is from Poland. To buy a home in London suitable for a family of 5 is almost impossible, but properties are far more affordable in Poland. So the family has bought a home elsewhere. Sultan thanked him for his services to the club over the 18 years. There will be a separate presentation to Michal when he returns from holiday for a couple of weeks at the beginning of September.
Michal goes on holiday in a week, and will return for a couple of weeks at the beginning of September, before completing his move to Poland. In the meantime, Richard Keep will give lessons or provide a hitting partner until Michal returns. A new club coach will be appointed soon, to start soon after Michal leaves.
On Sunday, the grass courts were shut all day as they were too wet. But, despite the inauspicious weather forecast, a number of matches were played, and the tournament is now up to date apart from a Men’s Single Round of 16 match between two stragglers, and a Ladies’ Singles Quarter Final match that had to be suspended due to rain (see the Order of Play above.
The first match to be played was a Mixed Doubles Quarter Final between Orhun Güley & Carine Valarche and Stephen Cooke & Alex Reyner, the top seeds and 2024 Title Holders. Carine is usually very consistent and capable of running all day for anything, and Orhun played well in the previous match. In the event, Orhun was philosophical and pointed out that at least they got a game in the first set. Stephen and Alex won 6-1 6-0.
The last Mixed Doubles Quarter Final was played later on between Olly Turner & Jane Boyle, and Greg Lim & Marjan Denis. Jane can hit anything in reach with an angled shot, short ball or lob, and Olly can run all day, going for many shots which produces a some winners (mostly) and some errors. Greg has a strong game with few mistakes, and Marjan has a strong all round game. Marjan started on the left to take advantage of her good angled backhand
In the first set, Olly and Jane played well. They are both lefties, and Jane played on the left, ad court. Marjan and Greg did not do a lot wrong, but couldn’t always hold serve, so the set went 6-3 to Olly and Jane.
In the second set Marjan and Greg switched sides. Presumably by that time they were also more used to playing against two lefties. And Greg stopped being quite so gentle with Jane on the serve, placing it more in the corners, with a bit more pace. There was more pressure on Olly and Jane. As a result, Olly’s attempted winners didn’t go in quite as often as they needed to do. Marjan and Greg took the set 6-2.
The ensuing Champions tie break (first to 10 etc.) was relatively even until 7-5 to Greg and Marjan, who then won the rest of the points for a 3-6 6-2 [10-5] victory.
One of the two outstanding Men’s Singles Round of 16 matches was played between Eric Petsopoulos and Greg Lim, the 5th seed. Although Eric hit some winners, Greg’s consistency, placement and faster pace of shot made it difficult for Eric to win many points, though he did get a game in the first set. Greg won 6-1 6-0.
The other Men’s Singles Round of 16 match, between George White and Logan Mair, will be played on Monday at 6 pm.
On hard court 4, Steve Yoo & Kris Engley took on Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair, the top seeds and title holders. In terms of team tennis it was second vs first team.
The first set was competitive, with some good doubles tennis played. But Steve and Kris could not prevent Stephen and Logan breaking to win the first set 6-3.
When Stephen and Logan got to 5-0 in the second set, it looked like the match would finish quickly to pave the way for the next. However, Stephen was broken and the challengers won their next serve before the title holders could close it out for a 6-3 6-2 victory to Stephen and Logan.
As you can see, there were keen spectators for this match, though the number grew for subsequent matches after the speeches for Michal’s farewell tea.
Both the remaining Men’s Doubles Quarter Final matches were played on court 5, which made it more difficult for spectators on the grass courts to follow them.
Brothers Marc & Philip Reid took on 4th seeds Sultan Gangji & Richard Keep. Marc was injured in his Singles against Dan Angel on Tuesday, having to retire after losing the first set 6-3, but seemed much recovered for this match. Both brothers are tall with a good serve and good forehands. But it is not clear how much they play nowadays, apart from a few pre-tournament warm-up sessions. Not only are there family commitments, but, it may be a case of too much golf and not enough tennis!
The match was competitive, but the Reid brothers gave away too many points, particularly on their serves. This improved somewhat in the second set, but not enough to stop Sultan and Richard from winning 6-3 6-4.
The last of the Men’s Doubles Quarter Final was between Marcio Sugui & Alex Vallmajor, playing the 3rd seeds Olly Turner & Joe Rigal. Marcio and Alex are both super consistent. Marcio is a Brazilian leftie who plays a lot competitively. Alex’s tennis upbringing was on the clay courts of Spain. Joe and Olly are more the big hitter types, who will go for it and either hit the winner or lose the point then and there. You would expect the match to be tight.
The first set was very competitive, with some good doubles tennis played. Joe, a right hander, played on the left, and Olly, a lefty, played on the right. This counter-intuitive choice does facilitate interceptions on the forehand on both sides of the court when receiving. But it didn’t seem to give them the necessary edge as Marcio and Alex won 6-4 6-4, against the seeding.
