LOCAL TENNIS with DONNA SCHOENMAEKERS
With the morning’s Junior pennant called off due to the rain, Tennis Geelong’s Senior pennant was looking doubtful, but the skies managed to stay rain-free and most matches were able to be completed.
The Section 2 Mixed ladder tightened with results showing how evenly matched the section is.
Grovedale hosted Hamlyn Park in a top of the table match and while Grovedale were six points ahead, Hamlyn Park won their round two encounter by only one game, so the match was expected to be close.
Grovedale started well with Ebony Paull and Riley Robertson winning the first mixed 6-3 while Hamlyn Park’s Kerrie Fatone and Steve Peretin countered in the second winning 6-0. From there however, the Park took control, winning the remaining four sets. Fatone won her three sets for the day with the Park drawing level on the ladder with Grovedale ahead by only two percentage points.
A Moolap derby was scheduled with fourth placed Gold hosting third placed Black and Gold would have been hoping to replicate their round two win and push them closer to third.
The match was even right from the start with Gold winning the first mixed 6-4 while Black took the second 6-3. Black won the women’s 6-4 while Gold’s men got through in a tie-break leaving only two games between the teams with the reverse mixed remaining. Darcy King teamed with Amy Kuskunovic to win his third set 6-4 for Gold, but that wasn’t enough to keep Black from taking the win when Rebcca Reinert and Rob Allsopp won the sixth set 6-3, keeping them ahead on game difference.
Lara and Newcomb also had a close tussle in the battle of fifth vs sixth, with only three games separating the teams at the end of the day.
Wendy Bell and Rob Dando opened Lara’s account with a 6-1 win in the first mixed, while Dianna Spork and Allan Fairchild were eventual winners of a tie-break for Newcomb.
From there the teams traded sets, with Lara managing to claw back some games, but the damage was done and Lara took the win, levelling the teams on points with only 0.07 percentage points the difference.
Western Heights Uniting kept their finals chances by defeating Drysdale. Sophie Harris and Angus Saunders won the first set for Drysdale 6-1 while Liviana Ryan and Shaun Howard did the same for the Heights in the second.
The Heights managed to take the men’s and women’s 7-5 before running away with the final two sets, giving them a 5-1 win, and with five rounds to go, an outside chance of still making finals.
