Donna Schoenmaekers
It was a dreary day for finals last week, but that didn’t stop the teams from 19 different clubs in Tennis Geelong’s junior competition from battling it out for a place in the grand finals.
There was a mixture of results with Centre Court’s Section 3 boys, Point Lonsdale’s Section 15 boys, and the Section 9 girls from All Saints taking clean sweeps to progress, while the matches for boys Section 2, 6, 9, 13 and 14, and girls Section 1, 3 and 9 were all tied on sets and decided on games.
The closest match of the day, however, was Section 8 girls first semi-final between St Mary’s and Drysdale, where the match was tied, and went to a deciding set.
Ava Burke took the first singles for Drysdale with a hard fought win in a tie-break, but St Mary’s Emily Cowled, Makayla Debooy and Ilsa Eslick put themselves in front winning the remaining singles 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 respectively.
The doubles both went the way of Drysdale with Ava and Stella Burke taking the first 6-3 while Mikayla Wiffen and Olivia Richardson took the second 6-1 forcing the match to the seventh set, which Alice Bulcher and Emily Cowled won for St Mary’s 6-3 earning them a grand final spot.
Section 11 boys will see a rematch for this week’s winner Ocean Grove when it comes up against Geelong Lawn after besting Centre Court 4-2.
The section has been dominated by these three teams, with each team having two losses for the season, one against each of the other teams.
Ocean Grove started strongly with Brody Hooton, Tommy Pallero and Quinn Taylor winning their singles 6-3, 6-2, 6-5 respectively, while Christian Liburdi kept Centre Court’s chances alive with a 6-0 win in the fourth.
With nervous parents watching on, all eight boys played confidently with Centre Court’s Jensen Fenske and Axel Potter-Ayres winning the fifth set in a tight tie-break, but with Ocean Grove’s Quinn Taylor and Tommy Pallero taking the last 6-3, Ocean Grove took a 4-2 win and booked its place in the grand final.
Section 8 boys was perhaps the toughest result to pick this week.
While Bannockburn and Point Lonsdale finished in the top two positions, both had suffered losses to their opponents, Waurn Ponds and Barwon Heads, through the season.
In Bannockburn and Waurn Ponds’ three matches through the season all were tied at three sets all, with Bannockburn taking two matches by four games, and the Ponds the other by three games.
Waurn Ponds started well with Katalia Mayes, Eli Stevens and Austin Mayes taking their singles 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, while Christian Ballis took the third 6-3 for Bannockburn.
The doubles went one each way with Nick Allwood and Harry Brown winning 6-3 for Bannockburn and Josiah Steven and Austin Mayes the final set for Waurn Ponds 6-4 giving it a 4-2 win.
Point Lonsdale lead Barwon Heads 2-1 going into their match, however Barwon Heads levelled the head to head, taking a convincing 5-1 win to produce a grand final of third versus fourth.
The Heads lead from the outset with Michael Sheridan, Cooper Hill and Jasper Delany winning their singles 6-4, 6-1, 6-2, while Ted Cooper won the fourth singles for Point Lonsdale 6-0.
Barwon Heads capped off the day with Sheridan and Delaney taking the fifth, and Hill and Fynn Condon the sixth 6-4, 6-4.
