Old College Lawn Tennis Club
Gallery Road • Dulwich • SE21 7AB
Mercifully for the players who were roasting in the scorching sun, there were very few three setters tonight. The only match to go the distance was punctuated by Spanish screams of distress from court three as Marc Meyohas did what he does best, cruelly slicing, dicing, moonballing and seemingly torturing Marc Baylis. Spectators fled as the Spanish swearing intensified, but Baylis did eventually come through 10-4 in the champ tiebreak. He was delighted to have finally defeated his nemesis in the club champs but is probably not hugely looking forward to a potential showdown with Adam Burgis, another torturous grinder in the final.
The other matches tonight seemed to provoke less yelling, though the tennis on show was nothing short of spectacular. Women’s semi-finals and men’s quarter finals brought out some stunning groundstrokes around the club. There were some complaints among spectators that the tennis was much better than the seating available to watch the matches, with suggestions that the club should provide tiered seating for the club champs. One to consider ahead of the clubhouse regeneration plan, Caroline Beck?
Last year’s champ, Virunee Viravong turned on the ferocious forehands to defeat Emma Michell on court 8. Emma said afterwards that the problem was that “Virunee just knows how to play tennis”. She sets herself up a rematch of last year’s final with Hannah “the wall” Pulford, who made just two errors in her entire match against Jess on court 7, proving that consistency is king. That and a fierce forehand and a sweltering serve… A repeat of last year’s three consecutive Virunnah matches is on the cards. An exciting club rivalry is brewing.
Elsewhere, Matt Whitehead and Daffyd James put on an outrageous display of consistent depth and pace on court five, with the rallies lasting for minutes at a time. The sun clearly had not undermined either of their grit, with the match lasting several hours. Daff, who one spectator said was “unbelievably nice” and now her “number 1 OCer” did ultimately come through 6-4, 6-2, a remarkably deceptive score line for such a long match.
On court 6, Tom Fenton refused to succumb to the Karanvir treatment, proving just too strong for the eighth seed, renowned for causing many OCers to lose their mind on court.
Jed Blacknell, a machine of a man, who we hear can run a 5k in 16 minutes, marched on to court two sporting a very stylish pair of pink shorts. Style, serves and speed, surely too many talents for one man?
Perhaps the biggest upset of the night came on court one, with number six seed, the young Lewis Henderson coming through in straight sets against newcomer and number three seed Henry Britton. Lewis is in a rich vein of form, having just won local rivals Dulwich’s club champs with ease, which the seeding committee conceded they had not taken into consideration when they did the OC draw. Henry appeared to be struggling slightly in the heat and was unable to convert some set points he had in the second set.
He did however turn up the heat for the doubles he had to play subsequently over on court five. Henry paired with Pink Shorts Jed against Matt Whitehead and Jo Weiland in the men’s dubs semi-final. With the club fox watching on, Henry, the most relaxed, almost casual looking player on court, hit an outstanding top spin lob to help him and Jed over the line in the first set tiebreak. Your correspondent may have lacked the commitment to stay until the very end of this match…
Thursday 25 June – Results
Boys U14 Doubles – Semi Finals
Seb Lee / Monty Coletto [1] bt Rhys Haeusser / Zac Canham 6-3, 6-1
Alphie Dilworth / Vasili Tsangalis bt Harry Au / Aryaan Webb [2] 6-2, 5-7, 10-7
Women's Singles – Semi Finals
Virunee Viravong [1] bt Emma Michell [4] 6-0, 6-1
Hannah Pulford [2] bt Jess Moody [3] 6-2, 6-0
Men's Singles – Quarter Finals
Lewis Henderson [6] bt Henry Britton [3] 6-3, 7-5
Dafydd James [4] bt Matt Whitehead [5] 6-4, 6-2
Jed Blacknell [7] bt Alex Walker [13] 6-3, 6-1
Tom Fenton [2] bt Karanvir Anand [8] 6-2, 6-0
Men's Doubles 50+ – Semi Finals
Adam Burgis [1] / Hamid Irshad bt James Hall / Robert Henderson 6-3, 6-0
Marc Baylis [2] / Philip Harper bt Charles Casey / Grahame Merifield 3-6, 6-1
Men's Singles 50+ – Quarter Final
Charles Casey [4] bt Mark Cheung 6-0, 6-1
Men's Singles 50+ – Semi Final
Marc Baylis [2] bt Marc Meyohas [6] 2-6, 6-2, 10-4
Mixed Doubles 50+ – Semi Final
Hamid Irshad / Alyson Fox bt Simon Godfrey / Silvia Schubert 6-3, 6-1
*
Friday 26 June – Order of Play
6:00pm
11U Boys Singles – Semi Final
Arihaan Anand vs Jonas Hill
14U Boys Singles – Quarter Final
Rishi Venkat vs Aryaan Webb
6:30pm
14U Boys Singles – Semi Final
Monty Coletto vs Joaquin Dumlao
Men's Singles – Semi Finals
Jed Blacknell [7] vs Lewis Henderson [6]
Dafydd James [4] vs Tom Fenton [2]
Men's Singles 50+ – Semi Final
Adam Burgis [1] vs Charles Casey [4]
Women's Doubles – Semi Final
Amy Sergeant [1] / Virunee Viravong vs Emma Michell [3] / Jess Moody
Women's Singles 50+ – Semi Finals
Vicky Flind [1] vs Anna Leslie
Aruna Iyengar vs Alyson Fox [2]
7:30pm
14U Boys Singles – Semi Final
Phoenix Bidder vs Rishi Venkat OR Aryaan Webb
Women's Singles – Semi Final
Hannah Pulford [2] vs Virunee Viravong [1]
Mixed Doubles – Semi Final
Joe Reeve [4] / Amy Sergeant vs Tom Fenton [2] / Virunee Viravong
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