SOMERTON Park has assumed favourtism for the SA men’s division of the National Tennis League after a dominant win over a depleted Woodville-Glengarry Wanderers at Memorial Drive last night.
The Sharks cleanswept the Wanderers – although four of the matches were decided in tiebreaks – six rubbers, 12 sets 40 games to 0-4-26, with Wimbledon junior boy’s champ Luke Saville leading the way.
The win improves the Sharks record to 2-0 in the SA division of the series which will see the winning team’s from men’s and women’s state leagues qualify to play at Melbourne Park during the Australian Open.
The Rostrevor Raiders have also move to 2-0 record after an impressive 5-8-28 to 1-5-32 win over the Broadview Tigers, while the Trinity Titans chalked their first win of the series up with a 4-7-39 to 2-5-29 over the Goodwood Saints.
For a full photo gallery of last nights matches click here.
For the Sahrks, Saville was forced to get his hands dirty in his win over Wanderers No.1 Steve Clasohm. Clasohm came out swinging to take the first set 4-2 before Saville fought back to win the second set 4-0 and comfortably win the deciding tiebreak 7-2. Todd Ley, Jack Schipanski and Pan Kokkinakis all won their singles – Kokkinakis needing an 8-6 tiebreak triumph to overcome plucky Wanderer Rob Green. The Sharks then won both doubles.
Like the Wanderers, Broadview was left to rue its inability to win deciding tiebreakers against Rostrevor. The The Perry brothers Todd and Heath both pulled off clutch third set tiebreak wins for Rostrevor, over Martin Richards and Corey Decandia, as the Raiders swept the singles rubbers. Broadview’s only joy came in the top double where Richards and Sean Page beat the Perry brothers 4-2 4-0.
Trinity veterans Adam Allessandrini and Andrew Tavella took to the court first for the Titans and, as they have done consistently for a decade, came through when it mattered. Allesandrini overcame the Saints’ Darren Polkinghorne, while Tavella beat Paul Kramberger, both in third set tiebreaks.
Scott Robertson got the Saints back into the contest with a straight sets win over James Ma but the side needed to win both doubles and failed to do so.
After two rounds, Somerton and Rostrevor have two wins, the Wanderers and Titans have 1-1 records and Broadview and Goodwood are yet to post a win.
On the women’s side, Trinity beat Memorial Drive 4-6-32 to 2-6-36 to maintain its unbeaten record and hand the Drive its first loss. In a great contest, the Leah Daw and Melanie Clayton won the top two singles for the Titans but the Dive’s Ainsley Fairhead and Jovana Petrov fought back with singles win to square the tie going into the doubles.
The Titans won both doubles to come away with a win.
Flagstaff hill also remains undefeated after it beat the Golden Grove Lions 4-8-38 to 2-4-23. Ashley Keir, Kim Ruxton and Chloe Hule all won their singles for the Freighters.
Goodwood broke through for its first win, thrashing The Gully 6-9-42 to 0-3-23. Nada Vujic, Nicki Barnet, Alexandra Way and Brooke Milner all won for the Saints.
The next round of the competition is on Thursday, November 24, at Memorial Drive.
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