It was near perfect winter weather for Tennis Geelong’s juniors this week and Section 3 Boys made the most of the conditions with some of the longest matches of the round and the race to make finals getting closer.
All Saints put themselves within four points of fourth spot when they registered a 4-2 win over Drysdale. The teams split the doubles with Daniel Lazzaro and Alexander Williams winning 6-0 for the Saints while Taj Croft and Patrick Lonegran got through in a tie breaker for Drysdale.
From there All Saints took over winning the first three singles, with Lazzaro winning 6-0 to not drop a game for the day, while Lonegran posted Drysdale’s second set winning the fourth singles 6-3.
Western Heights Uniting closed the gap on fourth to seven points when they pulled through by 11 games when tied at three sets all with Highton. Evie Ryan and Lima Begg won the first doubles 6-1 for Uniting while Highton’s Charlie Hair and Ivan Cottom came through in a tie-break in the second.
Ryan backed up her doubles win with a 6-0 win in singles and with Madison Muir winning the third singles 6-1, the result was put beyond doubt.
Grovedale Black put themselves within two points of second with an away win against Ocean Grove. Will Clayton and Sebastian Broad were well matched at number 1 with a lengthy tie-break in the singles going to Ocean Grove’s Broad while Clayton teamed with Jaylen Sach to get through in the doubles in another tie-break.
Sach, along with Yvette Harman won their singles 6-1, and Harman teamed with Jess Lee to win the second doubles 6-3 giving Black the win four sets to two.
The final match of the morning saw second placed Grovedale Yellow host Geelong Lawn in an epic battle with the result being decided by only two games. Jake Peck and Joshua Severin-Harvey came off court first winning 6-3 for Lawn, before Yellow’s Guy Wingrave and Hanna Schoenmaekers took the second doubles 6-4.
Fletcher Allen found some good form in the second singles, winning 6-1 while in the first Peck faced a lengthy battle with Aki Bhatt eventually coming through in a tie break.
The fourth singles saw Alfie Oliver and Schoenmaekers running themselves ragged in a hard fought match. Oliver got to a 3-0 lead before the match started to tighten.
At 2-3 down, Schoenmaekers failed to hold a marathon game, going down 4-2 and Oliver eventually took the match 6-2. With the final singles underway, Lawn held a three sets to two lead with only one game in hand, and things were getting tense on the sidelines.
Joe Traficante and Wingrave traded points and games until they reached a tie-break, and with Traficante hitting a lunging backhand just over the net for a winner on match point, the win was sealed for Lawn at four sets to two and two games.
