Between Saturday night’s thunderous storm and Sunday afternoon’s torrential rain, the finalists in the Sidmouth Tennis Club tournament took advantage of that window of warm sunshine on Sunday morning to compete for this year’s silverware.
However, there was nothing ‘warm’ about the hotly-contested matches which produced some superb tennis and matches of great entertainment for the spectators.
In the Men’s Singles, despite some delightful, skilful play from Jed Ionov Flint, and some Wimbledon worthy rallies, previous Devon champion Alfie Flatters produced a textbook display to take the title.
In the Ladies’ Singles’ match, Sarah Van Hecke also showed her skill against Ruth Powell, who, while retrieving what seemed like unreturnable balls, could do nothing to counter the former’s deep baseline shots and deft net play. Deservedly, Sarah took the title.
On the middle court, both Mixed and Men’s Doubles’ finals took place, not at the same time, and it was here that the nail-biting began.
In the Mixed, Helen Harm and Martin Dawes, playing against Evie Sycamore and Dave Watkins, could not have produced a more thrilling match. It was incredibly close throughout and could have gone either way but, in the end, it was Evie and Dave who took the trophy.
Similarly, the Men’s Doubles’ final brought out the best in the competitors. Ollie Knight and Guillermo Rodriquez, playing against Dave and Jon F, and it took the only Championship tie break of the day to seal it…Guillermo and (mini me) Ollie took the honours in another terrific encounter befitting of finals’ day.
On the third court, in another eagerly-contested match, two men battled it out for the Rusties/ Improver title - Matt Powell and Mike Touhy - with Mike sealing the victory.
These two were again in opposition for the Mixed Doubles’ Rusties/ Improver competition, where, in spite of some great rallies and close games, Mike Tuohy and Christina Machs Smith took the title against Matt and Claire Foster.
All in all, it was a great display of tennis from the competitors and a big thank-you from everyone involved to Head Coach Sue Wiltshire for organising and to those who either played or came to support.
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