Tennis Geelong’s Triples season wrapped with premierships across Section 2 through 6, a week after Moolap Two Phones Chol won their eighth premiership in Section 1.
In Section 2, Hamlyn Park H.E.A.T. had a strong season, leading the ladder wire-to-wire through the 10-week season with a 9-0-1 record.
Moolap Spin Doctors, with two teenagers, snuck into the grand final past their Moolap Zing Kings counterparts in round 10 with a stronger result. With more than a 150 percent lead in ladder points and only three weeks after a 5-1 35-15 win over the Spin Doctors, it seemed that the H.E.A.T. were a solid favourite to win their first Triples premiership.
The Spin Doctors had other plans on the night, with father-son combo Luca and Barboros Kara taking the number 1 doubles set over Cameron Harris and Lou Arzanovski 6-4.
Hamlyn’s Ed Jones came back with a surprise 6-3 singles win over Moolap’s young star Jake Peck, who also played in the Section 1 grand final the week prior. The younger Kara and Peck took a lead over Harris and Jones in the number 2 doubles set, but Harris and Jones were able to break serve as Moolap served for the set and came back to win the set in a tiebreaker 6-5. Tood Morgan won the number 2 singles set for Hamlyn Park 6-4 over Barboros Kara, so the H.E.A.T. took a two-set and four-game lead into the last two sets.
Needing to win both of the last two sets, Moolap put up a good fight, but Hamlyn’s experience won out, with Martin and Angelo Traficante taking the number 3 doubles 6-3 over the elder Kara and Peck, and Cameron Harris winning the number 1 singles 6-5 over young Luca Kara, sealing a 5-1 34-26 result.
Hamlyn Park H.E.A.T team captain Lou Arzanovski said he was relieved to “finally win one” premiership after losing in the grand final the last two years, and he was proud of his team’s “gritty and gutsy effort…to turn around three of the winning sets when 2-5 or 2-4 down”.
Section 3 saw Drysdale’s Fat Magpies win the closest final on paper, taking an away grand final over Highton’s Grown-Ups 3-3 25-23.
The first two sets resulted in one 6-5 tiebreaker win for each team, but three of the next four sets were 6-0 results, with two to Drysdale and one to Highton.
The Fat Magpies’ Nathan Jorgensen won two games in his number 2 singles loss to Martin Costello, and those two games proved to be the difference sealing his team’s premiership.
Leopold hosted the Section 4 and Section 6 grand finals against two Highton teams, providing an excellent showcase for their new clubhouse facilities. They were rewarded with premierships in both sections, with Section 4’s Deuce of Hazard winning their third premiership 4-2 30-25 over Kiss My Ace, not long after competing in last month’s Tennis Victoria League Championships.
Section 6’s Hit for Brains took advantage of untimely injuries and absences from Mid-Court Crises to win comfortably, 5-1 34-6.
The Section 5 premiership was played at Lara, and the home side defeated Coco Bewares 5-1 35-20.
