Newry Tennis Club

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Wednesday was to prove changeable with dark clouds looming and some of the players having to navigate tricky under foot conditions. No such problems for Gary and Matthew who have met often in tournaments before including here and in Warrenpoint. In their best quality encounter yet Matthew as always used his big kick serve and it proved key in the crucial moments including when Gary fought back to level terms at 4 all in the second. There were long rallies with Gary moving Matthew from side to side. There were also sojourns to the net for Matthew with Gary hitting some rasping passes. Overall Matthew had just too much power in a good effort. They were followed on Court 1 by Giby v Neil for the first time ever. Unfortunately we even needed to brush excess water off the court but to no avail as it was slippery thus curtailing this spectacle. Neither player could run to the max. Giby is back with a bang in this tournament and comfortably progressed.

Our new Dundalk duo Cian and Shane continue to progress in the Shield comp as they both won again, Cian won the last 11 games in a row from 52 down against Rory in the first whilst Shane showed his impressive play on these courts by overcoming Roy. Kudos to Michael Reynolds showing real improvement as he brought defending Plate winner Sean to a tiebreak in the second.

Malachy Patrick was on double duty again and was soaked as he stayed on court during heavy showers against Nigel who was halfway in Cranfield already during this extremely wet match! Malachy won easily and then returned for the Mixed with Sarah in a late night tussle with Alex and Dot. Dorothy had her tournament face on and was not missing at the net. It was the best standard Mixed so far with everyone getting their chances but as the time went past 10.30, Alex and Dot had the edge.

Thu

As 10 Social tennis players roamed around the court in the background, Alex won a cagey Plate match against 2006 winner John Richmond. Alex has won the Open Plate but never the Closed but well on his way this year.  A rain shower hindered No2 seed Andrew as he fell three times on court including a nasty one in the very first game as he trailed 0-40 against Cormac. But after the initial scare he literally picked himself up and used his superior groundies to dominate this match. Although Cormac won just one game it was an entertaining battle, that at points looked closer. Andrew progresses to meet his regular playing partner Marty.

Shane remains unbeaten in this tournament and with an improving Eve they proved too strong for the now regular pairing of Neil and Pauline. The latter duo had their chances and went 3-0 up in the second but it is hard to stop that competitive spirit of the best player in the club and he helped his team storm through to the semis.

A shout out to James in particular who has been doing a great job in the first full week. He has been doing a multitude of jobs to ensure the smooth running of this tournament of which we can add babysitter as well!!