LOCAL TENNIS Donna Schoenmaekers
The most recent COVID-19 lockdown wreaked havoc on Tennis Geelong’s finals, which were due to start last Saturday.
With just 12 hours’ notice, junior committee members scrabbled to get the word out that the day’s play was cancelled.
Lockdown is due to end in time for the grand finals, but this remains a moving target for Tennis Geelong organisers amid the unpredictability of the pandemic.
If grand final week goes ahead as scheduled, only the top two teams in each section will have a chance to play for the premiership, rather than the top four.
The final four of the Section 1 girls will be devastated, with only four premiership points separating them.
The closest section of the season will see minor premiers Grovedale Yellow face Highton.
Grovedale took top spot in the final round, coming from third with a massive 6-0 win, and Highton and Wandana Heights drew, to finish second and third respectively.
Highton would be quietly confident having won the teams’ only other meeting in round 4 by three games, with the sets level.
Amelia Batty lost just one game that day, so Grovedale Yellow will need to determine the best way to play the team to limit her effect.
Western Heights Uniting will host Centre Court in the Section 4 girls, with both teams having won 40 sets for the season.
In their one meeting this season, the singles results were close, but Uniting took both doubles sets comfortably, 6-1, 6-0, to shore up their 4-2 win.
Centre Court will need to get their combinations right if they are to turn the tables.
Section 7 Girls saw Wandana Heights take top spot with a 6-0 win from Grovedale, which had a bye in the final round.
Grovedale won 5-1 when the teams last played in round 4.
While on paper this looks convincing, three of the sets were 6-5, making the result much closer than it appears and the final an interesting one to watch.
Section 1 boys will see Geelong Lawn win a premiership, as their White and Green teams will both battle for the flag.
While White finished seven points ahead of Green, the two matches they played were split with Green taking the first by seven games, at three-sets-all, and White rebounding to take the second 5-1.
White would be confident going into the match after the defeat in the first encounter, as a change-up in singles order and doubles pairings saw a big turnaround to White in the second meeting.
In the Section 6 Boys, Waurn Ponds pushed themselves into second with a 6-0 win in their last match.
This left them on equal points with minor premiers Geelong Lawn but 4.04 per cent behind.
The teams only played once in the season, with nothing between them then either.
The game finished in a thrilling draw at three sets, 28 games each.
Ethan Terpstra has played well for Waurn Ponds, and has lost only one singles match for the season – to Geelong Lawn’s Liam Flanagan, who remains undefeated.
Both teams will need to play well to get over the line in this one.
Section 8 will see two highly unusual things happen.
The top two teams, Grovedale and Surfcoast Jan Juc, both finished undefeated and will play each other for the first time in the grand final.
Rounds 5, 10 and 15, when the teams were scheduled to play each other, were abandoned due to various lockdowns.
The lack of head-to-head data for this final makes it impossible to predict.
Grovedale will hope for Riley Van der Vliet to continue his good form, only dropping two sets, both doubles, for the season
Surfcoast Jan Juc will be looking for a good all round performance to get them over the line.
