Club Champs Order of Play & Highlights Day 9

Dear All,

We need to start today's round up with a small announcement: if anyone found a wedding ring in or around the club today (possibly around court 5?), could you please get in touch with Alex or any committee member.

Here are some of the highlights from Sunday's action:

With the weather set to cool down, it was great to see the tennis is still hot as we progress through the rounds (and it is always a joy to be treated to a Matt Whitehead double-bill!)

The vets started the day slowly with Bob and Anne coming out victorious over Nick and Rosie . Nick was then back in action later in the day with Vincent , to take on Bob (again) and James ... and from the colourful language drifting across the club, it would seem Nick was not on the winning side this time either. Bob and James then continued immediately into the evening session against Marc and Phil , who proved too much for them.

Yuki and Nicola looked to be slogging it out in a tough battle, hiding out of view on court 8, where Yuki managed to clinch it in a champs tie-break; and Vicky was victorious against Sylvia on court 3, where later our former Chairman Peter Higgs ' canny shot-making wasn't quite enough to trouble Jamie Burnett .

In the other draws, with a growing family, we were fully anticipating a father-son pairing from Benson this year, but it seems the smell of that trophy from 2023 lingers and his commitment to family disappeared in a flash when he heard Alex Walker is back in town! Bad news for the Stott and Ajegbo pairing, who put up a spirited fight, but just weren't landing the punches.

Matt and Jo delivered an ostensibly innocuous 6-2,6-2 scoreline against Michael and Sid , despite playing for nearly two hours. It seems they were just having too much fun in the deuce games, with even the very first game taking 20 minutes; and when Michael and Sid did finally get onto the scoreboard, the celebration sounded a like a champions league match had just finished.

Matt then went on to slowly and mercilessly dismantle David Jovic with masterful focus, despite David's valiant slice rally shots as a windy storm seemed to be approaching. And maybe Jo was that storm, as he showed a similar degree of empathy in his singles, systematically destroying the hopes and dreams of a young (and once upon a time enthusiastic) Hugo .

Karan was on best retriever form, pushing big hitter Chris Alstadt's into a 7-5 first set, but he wasn't quite able to keep the pressure on and lost the second set 6-1.

Meanwhile our very own Narnian ice queen Virunee continues to leave a trail of bagel & breadstick crumbs in her wake, although we're told there were a few deuces in the mixed today, in which she was paired with Alasdair (who seems to be coming to terms with matches organised more than 12 minutes in advance) against mother and son duo Elcin and Ediz .

In other news Jane Buswell made short work of Aruna ; later playing with Hannah P ; making even shorter work of Lorna and Louisa . Then Alyson and Jess B took on Jo and Rebecca , dropping only two games to seal the deal.

In the juniors, Koto and Harry both came through in style and Arihaan seems to have inherited the nerves and consistency of a ball machine from his father to take the champs tie-break against Noah G. Zachary & Noah Z had some solid rallies, with Noah Z proving too strong in the end. And the day finished with Elliot and Ediz delivering some high paced exchanges, with Elliot ultimately taking the win.

Shot of the day - in the men's doubles the point was all but over and Sid and Michael were pretty much preparing for the next serve, but Jo Weiland had other plans and demonstrated his figure skating prowess to skid into the ball as the hairs were considering making contact with the ground for a second bounce and resurrect the point to play a blinding backhand winner.

Tomorrow's matches to watch:

The start of the second week of the tournament brings thrilling duels for your delectation. At 630pm newcomer Jess Bosi will face Jane Buswell in the quarter finals of the ladies' singles, a match sure to be filled with big hitting on all sides and some Nadal-esque topspin from Jess .

Also at 630pm, a monster men's doubles clash takes place as Jonathan Pearson and Tom Leech take on the intriguing new pairing of Joe Reeve and Miles Speer . Huge forehands all around. Then Miguel Viera and Mahvash Tavassoli take on Ivan Savage and Judy Hammond in the vet's mixed dubs, in what is sure to be an epic encounter.

The day ends with some great men's singles match ups as first seed Tom "cool as a cucumber" Fenton takes on tiebreak king Joe Reeve . Will Joe manage to push last year's champ all the way? 6th seed Jo Weiland plays 12th seed Alasdair Bradley , but match of the day will surely be between youngsters Miles Speer and Lewis Henderson . Miles is out for revenge after last year's defeat. Sparks may fly.

23 June Order of Play

4.15pm

u12 boys S.Lee vs H.Au

5.15pm

u12 boys: Aryaan vs Percy
u12 boys: Fabien Ofori vs Arihaan Anand

6.30pm
u16 boys: Seb Bennion vs Seb Soegianto
WD50+: A.Fox/A.Iyengar vs M.Roseghini/A.Leslie (6pm start)
WS: Jess Bosi [4] vs J.Buswell [7]
MD: L.Hymas/H.Irshad vs K.Anand/G.Hope
MD: J.Pearson/T.Leech vs J.Reeve/M.Speer
XD50+: M.Viera/M.Tavassoli vs I.Savage/J.Hammond
MD50+: Higgs/Alderson vs Cheung/Shimazaki

7.45pm
WS50+: Aruna Iyengar vs Anna Leslie
MS: Dom Pearson vs Daniel Ajegbo
MD50+: Mark Alderson vs Bill Meredith
XD50+: H.Irshad/A.Fox vs S.Godfrey/G.Kirwan
MS: Tom Fenton [1] vs Joe Reeve [10]
MS: Miles Speer [5] vs L.Henderson [4]
MS: Jo Weiland [6] vs Alasdair Bradley [12]

22/06/2025