Again, the weather was kind, despite earlier forecasts, and all matches were played on grass.
Brian Coffey provided tasty Mediterranean chicken, with assistance from his wife Lilian. Stephen and Sasha provided large quantities of delicious tiramisu for dessert.
The evening’s tennis kicked off with a pair of Ladies’ Singles Semi-finals.
On court 1, Marjan Denis took on the the top seed and 2024 Champion, Becca Vaughan. Marjan was pleased to hit winners on a number of points, and perhaps deserved a game or two more, but Becca is too consistent, accurate and court-savvy to be thwarted for long. Marjan won her only game in the first set, for a 6-1 6-0 victory to Becca.
By contrast, on centre court, it was a super ding dong battle between Eléonore Wauthier and Alex Reyner, the 2nd seed. Eléonore has been selected to play for the West Heath ladies’ first team, but couldn’t make it due to work commitments. She plays a lot of singles, mainly on surfaces other than grass, and hadn’t played a singles match on grass before.
She and Alex both have a similar style of play with a lot of topspin groundstrokes used. The standard of tennis was very high, though the tactics mostly used did not take advantage of the grass court.
Alex won a close first set, taking it 7-5.
But Eléonore must have worked out better how to play on grass, and started to move Alex around, forcing errors. Eléonore took the second set 6-1. Alex adjusted her game somewhat in the deciding set, to cut off Eléonore’s passing shots down the line, but tired a little faster than her opponent, who then won a few points with shorter balls. Eléonore won the last set 6-2 for a 5-7 6-1 6-2 victory.
It will be fascinating to see what happens on Finals Day when Eléonore plays Becca.
The remaining matches were the pair of Men’s Doubles Semi-finals.
Starting on grass court 3, but moving on to centre court after the first set, Sultan Gangji & Richard Keep, 4th seeds, played Greg Lim & James Li-Tremble, the 2nd seeds. Although Sultan played with Greg the previous year, Sultan had suggested to Greg that he stood a better chance of winning the Men’s Doubles against Stephen Cooke & Logan Mair with James instead. So Sultan and Greg were on opposite sides of the net in the Semi-finals.
Sultan and Richard were relying on Richard’s serve to give them a good leg up into the first set, but it wasn’t quite firing on all four cylinders, and the first set went straightforwardly 6-0 to Greg and James. However, the highlight of the second set was indeed Richard’s serve, in a game towards the end, with a number of break points, which Richard and Sultan held off to finally take the game to raucous cheers from the spectator.
Greg and James won the match 6-0 6-1. It remains to be seen how they get on against the other finalists (not giving anything away).
On grass court 1 the first set of other Men’s Doubles Semi-final was far more competitive. This was played at a high standard, with no quarter asked for or given. The unseeded pair Marcio Sugui & Alex Vallmajor took on the top seeds and 2024 champions Stephen Cooke and Logan Mair. Marcio and Alex relied on accurately placed ground strokes and lobs. Increasingly, as the match went on, Stephen and Logan assumed the net position and relied on reflex volleys to put the ball beyond the opponents. There were a number of superb points with players chasing down almost lost balls to sustain the rallies.
The first set reached 5 all, but Stephen and Logon broke and held to take it 7-5. The challengers were less successful in the second set, as Stephen and Logan hit more penetrating shots to reach the net together. Stephen and Logan took this set 6-2 for a 7-5 6-2 victory.
Although the weather has been good enough for grass court tennis this week, our luck may have run out with the grass, and the Mixed Doubles Final and Men’s Singles Semi-finals will likely have to be played on the hard courts, prior to Lesley’s professional Thai meal. However, if it is not too cold, the canopy in the photos above may still enable us to eat outdoors.
