At the start of round five Hamlyn Park Blue appeared to be comfortable on top of the ladder in Tennis Geelong’s Section 4 men, however some unexpected one-sided results has reduced its lead and separated the top four from the rest of the field.
The so-far-undefeated Blue would have been keen to continue its winning streak this week over second placed Inverleigh, and while it has not been defeated, it didn’t manage a win either, with the match finishing in a draw.
The match started as it finished with the teams level after the first two sets with each team scoring a 6-3 win.
Blue managed to gain a lead on games with Patrick Lanyon and Jeffrey Mann taking a 6-2 win in the third set, but Inverleigh’s Michael Walker and Craig Ellis eked out a hard fought win in the fourth in a tie break.
The match was in the balance when Owen Lewis and Craig Ellis took the fifth set comfortably for Inverleigh 6-1, putting them a set and two games ahead with the last to play, but Jeff Mann and Lou Arzanovski rallied for Blue to take the last set 6-4 and secure a draw.
The other matches in the round were not so close.
In the second match of the round, Bannockburn hosted Lara, with the home team posting a comfortable win five sets to one.
The win consolidated Bannockburn in the four, while Lara dropped to seventh.
The only highlight for Lara was a win to Jak Caddy and Blake Smeaton in the third set 7-5.
Third-placed All Saints pushed itself into second this week with a 6-0 win over Hamlyn Park White.
White was competitive in all the sets but it couldn’t quite get over the line, and the result pushed it back to sixth.
All Saints put in an even team performance with all players dropping either seven or eight games each.
The final match of the round turned out to be a non-event, with Ocean Grove unable to field a team, giving Moolap a 6-0 result and elevating it into fifth.
With only four points separating the top four teams with one round left before the return matches, things could be very different again after next week, with all teams in the four playing teams outside the four.
