LOCAL TENNIS with Donna Schoenmaekers
Gusty winds and high heat were factors teams were unfamiliar with on Saturday for Tennis Geelong’s Senior Pennant preliminary finals on March 18 and despite the potential to defer matches, all but one were completed on the day.
In the Open sections, all results went with ladder positions from the end of the season.
Geelong Lawn Green, after a close loss to Highton in the first Semi, moved past their counterparts White, winning three rubbers to one. In the first singles Jackson Varney found himself break point down at 3-4, but due to a net touch by his opponent Jake Bucek on a winning volley, Varney stayed in the game, and steeled himself to take the first set 6-4, then the second 6-2. White countered in the doubles with a 6-4,6-4 win, leaving the match in the balance going into the final two rubbers.
The second doubles went the way of Green 6-2, 6-2 while Jimmy Tjeuw and Rhys McNabb fought out the second singles in an epic 7-6, 3-6, 10-7 with the win going to Tjeuw, and Green.
Wandana Heights, who had been dominant to finish minor premiers in both Section 2 and 3, returned to form this week with 3-0 and 4-0 wins respectively over Ocean Grove in both matches.
Newcomb took a tough two rubbers to one win over Lara in Section 4, with both doubles rubbers going the distance with Lara winning the first 10-4 and Newcomb the second 11-9 in the super tiebreaks and Newcomb’s Jacob Pianto winning his singles 6-2, 6-0. The second singles was played to a result with David Spork up 6-2, 2-1, enough to give Newcomb the win.
Waurn Ponds have guaranteed a premiership in the Section 5 grand final next week after their Red and White teams had relatively comfortable wins over Moriac and Highton Blue.
The men’s sections were a mixed bag of results with Grovedale going down in its three matches to Clifton Springs (S1), Hamlyn Park (S3) and Geelong East Uniting (S3), while Moolap Yellow went down four sets to two to Geelong Lawn in Section 2, but their Section 3 team would be happy with their 6-0 win over Inverleigh.
With one match still to be played, it was a week of upsets for the mixed sections with only Clifton Springs (S2) and Newcomb (S5) making the most of their second chance. Grovedale were out-gunned by Bannockburn 5-1 in Section 1 while Hamlyn Park, who were tied at two sets all after the doubles, won the final two sets to get over Anglesea in section 3.
Teesdale outlasted Clifton Springs and the conditions long enough to seal the win before calling the day, finishing ahead by just the one game in Section 4, while Highton came from 3-1 down in their Section 6 match against Western Heights Uniting to take the final two sets in their match and win though to next week by two games.
