This was a tough assignment, away at table-topping Wellington on their ultra sandy astro courts. This was a Wellington team with a distinctly French flavour, with a number 1 (Julien Bourdry) who had played some Premier 1 games and had once been a top ranked French junior. He'd even had his own article in the local paper! I drew some encouragement from the fact that if anyone dislikes sandy astro courts more than me, it's the French with their long cultured swings.
Kris and I took on the French connection of Julien and Herve Michaud in the doubles. In case we were still sleepy Herve woke us up by nailing Kris with a smash in the first game, and then tagging me about 3 times over the next half an hour. Julien meanwhile was showing a preference for neat little drop-volleys. But Kris was on fire and we powered to a 6-2 5-2 lead. There was some concern as a couple of poor service games saw us lose our lead and the second set 7-5. But we dug back in and took the final set 6-0 with some very solid play in tough conditions.
Richard and Brian were beaten 6-1 6-2 by the quality pairing of David Patterson and Mike Garnham, so we still had a lot to do in the singles.
I don't know if it was the tough doubles defeat, the sandy astro court, the windy and drizzly day, or a combination of all the above but Julien was not in the mood for our singles. He went for a winner on almost every ball and, while landing some spectacular winners, made too many errors. I got as many balls in as I could and that was enough for a 6-1 6-1 win and some welcome Topdog points against an S3. Julien indicated afterwards he was planning to give up playing matches as he wasn't enjoying them at all, so we finished on a low key note.
Richard had a hard battle with Patterson, who was heard saying "this bloke's better at singles than he looked in the doubles"! But Patterson hit his stride on his home turf and came through 6-4 6-2.
Brian faced top tot Kiranpal Pannu, who is small but steady! Brian went 5-1 down, came back to 5-4, but then Pannu finished the first set 6-4 and got the second 6-3. Brian had the greater weight of shot but couldn't consistently hit through his talented young opponent.
Match of the day was Kris vs Herve. Kris lost the first 6-3, won the second 6-2, then the third stayed on serve through to a tie-break. There had been some great shots and pulsating rallies in deteriorating conditions. Kris played well to get to 5-4 up in the TB, but Herve landed a couple of mighty blows to win it 7-5. Overall though Kris had a superb day, dominating the doubles and pushing a good S4 opponent to the edge.
So we took our first defeat, 4-2, but still had a useful couple of points in our bid to make the final.
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