Tennis Round vs Newington
The return to the court for the summer tennis season commenced last Saturday with a friendly fixture against Newington College. It was great to see the sun shining and the students from both schools enjoying their matches. Newington provided a strong opposition on the day and managed to win 11 of the 18 matches contested. The score board aside, the fixture provided the ideal preparation platform for tomorrow’s Round 1 fixture against Cranbrook School. I am sure our teams will be more competitive because of last weekend’s hit out.
The winning Trinity teams that should be acknowledged were the 2nd, 5th and 6th IV, the Year 9 BCD, and the Year 8 A team.
The 1st and 2nd IV played a modified fixture at home which meant playing a full three-set singles match apart from the usual one set only. Our students loved this concept and rose to the challenge. Despite losing the fixture 1-5 there were some very close matches that quite easily could have gone Trinity’s way. A good example of this was the doubles played by James Kim (12Ar) and Finn Taylor (11La), who combined beautifully for the majority of the match before conceding late in the set for a 5-7 loss. Without a doubt the most exciting match of the day was the number one singles match contested by Max Knauer (12Ho). Max came up against a very strong opponent who won the first set reasonably comfortably and took the early advantage in the second set. Despite being down, Max was not out and with dogged perseverance fought his way back into the match relying on his problem-solving savvy and heavy lefty ground strokes. By the time the third set rolled around Max’s opponent had conceded mentally as well as physically and capitulated without any or little resistance. Newcomer Mitchell Reid-Queeney (11Ar) also played some excellent Tennis over the course of the morning, particularly in the doubles.
The new look 2nd IV had a convincing four sets to two victory and must be acknowledged for their good play on the day. The team, sporting a new face in the form of Chris Lowe (10Ho), combined incredibly well together and were a tour de force on the day. Most players were dominant in their singles matches which set up the team for victory early in the fixture.
The 3rds and 4ths fixture against Newington was a closely contested round. Both teams experienced highs and lows, and in the end Newington emerged triumphant in both grades by gaining more games after the sets were tied at 3-3.
In the 3rds, George Nicholas (11WJ) and Mark Charas (11Ho) fought hard in their doubles, but ultimately in a losing cause. While George was unable to gain revenge in his singles, Mark did! Down 2-5 playing at No.2, he refused to give up. Using both his attractive ground strokes and a more than adequate first serve, he took the attack to his opponent and forced a tie-break in which he played some of his most effective tennis. James Chan (10La) and Aidan Kuoch (10La) won their doubles decisively, and James was able to maintain this domination with a very convincing 6-1 win.
In the 4ths, the doubles sets were shared, with Ben Kwan (11He) and Max Trigg (11We) playing consistently and with no mean degree of skill to win a tie-break. While Ben’s opponent had to forfeit because of injury, Max was unable to match the consistency of his opponent. Alex Nero (10Ta) and Tom North (10Hi) were outplayed in doubles, but both came back strongly in their respective singles matches. Both boys forced their opponents to tie-breaks, but unfortunately only one finished triumphant, and that was Alex, who was determined to chase every ball and then get that ball back into play.
Through all the matches our boys demonstrated outstanding sportsmanship, and that, as much as anything else on Saturday, made me proud to be their coach.
Finally, congratulations must be extended to James Kim who has been appointed as Tennis Captain. James has been a long-serving stalwart of the Trinity tennis community having played every season since commencing in Year 7. More recently James has played a couple of seasons in the 1st IV Tennis Team.
Jeremy Dykgraaff | MIC Tennis
