Karramomus' John Gagiano couldn’t have had himself a better day on the hot courts.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Call the Shepparton District Tennis Association finals race at your peril.
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Three weekends remain in the A1 competition before knockouts begin and, while round 12 brought about an opportunity for clubs to safeguard their positions, not everybody in the upper rungs walked away happy.
At Central Park the bottom-placed host did battle with Karramomus.
Central Park's Luke Burgmann steadies as the non-receiver of serve.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Karramomus' Tony O'Callaghan comes in to volley.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Central Park's Andrea Graham stays ready.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Karramomus' Stef Veal looks to guess the serve position.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Karramomus' Katha Veal reflects on a point.
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Rechelle Zammit
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Karramomus' Marie Levett-Hall sees an overhead smash in waiting.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Central Park's Warwick Long prepares to go into full extension.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Central Park's Janelle Pottenger put her best foot forward in defeat.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
The visitors started like a house on fire in the Saturday heat, with John Gagiano putting up the first two wins of what would become a three-for-three day as part of a three-set streak to start the afternoon.
Desperately in need of a spark through the middle sets, top-ranked Janelle Pottenger helped rattle off a vital pair of set wins to restore some balance.
While Pottenger would ultimately claim all three of her sets by teaming with Warwick Long to keep her side in the contest, Gagiano completed his perfect run at the death as Karramomus pulled away to comfortably prevail 6-46 to 3-26 and move up to third.
By then, though, the other two A1 fixtures had been completed under Friday evening conditions.
Karramomus was able to move into a podium place because of McEwen Reserve Red’s heavy defeat to runaway leader Shepparton North, which sits as perhaps the only side that can truly breathe easy at this stage of the season.
Tim Comer was involved in both of Red’s set wins, but it proved far from enough as North at one point took five consecutive rubbers to put the tie beyond doubt, winning 7-48 to 2-27.
Where there was perhaps more surprising movement involved Lemnos, which proved a happy place to be at the weekend as Pine Lodge broke its Haisman Shield drought the following afternoon.
Lemnos’ meeting with McEwen Reserve Gold loomed as a tight one throughout, where the two sides traded the first four sets and, in the end, no registered player could actually win all three of their rubbers.
Lemnos rallied brilliantly to take four in a row down the stretch and kept losses in the final two sets close enough to hold firm in a tight one, preventing Gold from obtaining some insurance points with a 5-43 to 4-41 win.
