The Canberra Velocity Women’s team have secured back to back NSW/ACT Conference titles in the Asia Pacific Tennis League. Velocity defeated the UTS Lizards 4 rubbers to 2 in a final that featured everything including an injury, a substitution, and 2 players coming back from match point down.
Things got off to a shaky start for the Velocity team with Alexandra Nancarrow and Tyra Calderwood dropping the first sets in their matches. In the first set tiebreak, Nancarrow injured her ankle on the side fence while hitting a forehand against Abbie Myers. After taping it at the end of the set, Nancarrow tried to play on, but had to stop, with Imogen Clews being subbed in one game later. Unfortunately Myers proved too strong for Clews and put the Lizards up 1-0. In the meantime, Calderwood mounted a massive comeback after facing match point at 4-4 in the second set tiebreak against Lucie Kriegsmannova. Calderwood won the sudden death point to take the set and take it to a deciding set. The third set was again a battle and went to a tiebreaker, with Calderwood taking it 5-2 to level things up at 1 rubber a piece. Alison Bai made short work of Sonja Balic, only dropping 1 game to put Velocity up 2-1. Bai has gone through the conference undefeated in both singles and doubles without the loss of a set. Maria Vais started strong against Jess Engles going out to an early 2-0 lead. Engels then hit back to win 7 of the next 8 games and find herself up 3-1 and match point. Vais dug deep and fought her way back into the match, taking the set in a tiebreak. Vais then took the 3rd set 4-1 in what turned out to be a crucial victory for the team.
Heading into the doubles 3-1 up, Velocity needed to secure one doubles win to take the tie. The first set in both matches went quickly with Bai and Calderwood winning it 4-1, while Vais and Imogen Clews lost theirs 4-0. The Lizards closed out the number 2 doubles against Vais and Clews, to make it 3-2. Bai and Calderwood held strong to win the second set 4-1 and clinch the victory for Velocity 4 rubbers to 2.
In speaking about the victory, Alison Bai said “It was an incredibly close final that was decided by just a few points. We are really excited to win back to back titles, and looking forward to heading to Melbourne for the National Final”.
The Velocity Women will now travel to Melbourne during the second week of the Australian Open to take on the other conference winners from around Australia and the Asia Pacific.
Canberra Velocity 4 d UTS Lizards 2
Singles
No 1. Alexandra Nancarrow (substitute Imogen Clews) l Abbie Myers (UTSL) – 3-4 (2), 0-4
No 2. Alison Bai (CV) d Sonja Balic (UTSL) – 4-1, 4-0
No 3. Tyra Calderwood (CV) d Lucie Kriegsmannova (UTSL) – 0-4, 4-3(4), 4-3 (2)
No 4. Maria Vais (CV) d Jess Engels (UTSL) – 2-4, 4-3(1), 4-1
Doubles
No 1. Bai/Calderwood (CV) d Myers/Balic (UTSL) – 4-1, 4-1
No 2. Clews/Vais (CV) l Kriegsmannova/Engels (UTSL) – 0-4, 1-4
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