If you read the title of this post as "a doubles", you're reading it the worng way. It is supposed to be "A Doubles", and it refers to the Club Championships Men's A Doubles, Women's A Doubles, and Mixed A Doubles. All these 3 divisions were played up to the finals this passed weekend. Two matches on the Friday and one on the Saturday were played on clay, all other matches on grass.
I was lucky to capture the best point in this Men's A doubles match on video. Study the footwork of the receivers partner and tell me how good it is on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the best)
It was a beautiful day on Saturday up on the terrace. The Grounds did a fabulous job getting the courts ready after some heavy rain Friday morning. I noticed very early Saturday morning that Grounds Man elite Neil drove the tractor with the 100 year old roller behind it over the courts to firm them up and improve the playing experience for the competitors. Neil was wearing his orange baseball hat, a slight mismatch with the color of the tractor. Tennis Director Wolf brought up water and towels for the players as well as balls and most importantly: the Draws. You have got to know who you are playing, and when.
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| Tournament Director with The Draws |
There were many hard fought matches, and some players ended up playing more than they could chew. Creative stalling techniques to conserve energy between matches and after split sets were indeed observed.
One of the more entertaining matches that I watched was KofolKofol vs. O'SullivanChen. Team O'Chen lost the first set and was up 4-3 in the second when DKofol served a long game that could have gone either way. After several deuces she held to 4-4. Team Kofol then broke, and TKofol served out the match.
As you know, all finals are played on the Championship weekend in September. The Doubles Finals will be played as follow:
One of the more entertaining matches that I watched was KofolKofol vs. O'SullivanChen. Team O'Chen lost the first set and was up 4-3 in the second when DKofol served a long game that could have gone either way. After several deuces she held to 4-4. Team Kofol then broke, and TKofol served out the match.
As you know, all finals are played on the Championship weekend in September. The Doubles Finals will be played as follow:
Men's A Doubles: Gregor/Porter vs. Ament/Meringoff
Women's A Doubles: Driscoll/O'Sullivan vs. Judge/Lane
Mixed A Doubles: L. Ford/Porter vs. Judge/B. Power
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| Action on the Terrace |
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| Fans with 1st row tickets |
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| Porter/Ford receiving serve |
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| It was hard to take one picture of all the courts. This is a poor attempt... |
Very good comments Bjorn as well as an entertaining use of Swedish translations of American expressions.
ReplyDelete"Playing more they could chew" refers only to the native North Carolina Chewing Tobacco championships (NCCTC) event which Bubba Wolf used to run - it means little or nothing when referring to a gentile sport such as tennis.
In any event - kudos to you and Larry for sticking it out through a very long weekend of excellent tennis - glad you wore a big hat.
That footwork was much worse than yours at the Opening Cocktail party when you you heard it was last call. You sprinted from the porch to the clubhouse like Nadal, did a beautiful ten foot slide into the bar and cradled a beer without spilling a drop despite the obvious pressure.
ReplyDeleteWell done indeed.