Tale of two halves in grand finals

Section 4 Girls Geelong Lawn: Ester White, An’e Stojcevski, Lucy Salmon, Sienna Grgic and Sofia Delgadinho. (supplied)

It was a tale of two halves in the grand final for Section 1 Boys with three nailbiting 7-5 results and the remaining three one sided at 6-0, 6-0, 6-1.

Rhys McNabb and Jake Bucek won their singles for Geelong Lawn White 7-5, then after a rain delay Anthony Williams took his 6-0, before Sibimanya Jothikumar put Geelong Lawn Green on the board winning 6-1.

Williams and Bucek sealed the win for White in the first doubles with a 6-0 win, while Will Tohill and Joshua Rowbottom rounded out the day taking the final doubles 7-5 for Green.

The final result was a great morning’s tennis with White premiers by four sets to two.

Grovedale finished the season undefeated in S2 Boys proving too strong for Ocean Grove Blue, taking the win five sets to one. Malachi Hedt finishing the season unbeaten in singles at number 1.

Centre Court and Barwon Heads faced up in the Section 3 Boys final, where things started well for the Heads, when Dex Taylor took the first set 6-0 and Xavier Guest the second 6-4.

From there though the match tightened, with Laim Muir and Curtis Youla winning their singles in tie-breaks for Centre Court.

The doubles were also hard-fought affairs with a 6-4 to Centre Court in the first and another tie-break, this time to the Heads, leaving the teams level on sets, but Barwon Heads premiers with a five-game lead.

Clifton Springs and Grovedale had comfortable wins in Section 4 and 7 Boys, with both teams taking 5-1 wins. Akshat Bhat remained unbeaten in singles for the season for Grovedale.

Waurn Ponds came out all guns blazing in Section 5, taking minor premiers Barwon Heads by surprise winning the first three singles, and missing out on the fourth in a tie-break before each team took a doubles 6-1 to give the underdogs from the Ponds a 4-2 win.

Sections 6, 8 and 9 were the closest results for the Boys, with all three decided on games.

Lara and Geelong Lawn were tied on sets with a one-game advantage to Lara after the singles, before Charlie Dando paired with Samuel Weber to take his second set of the morning 6-1, while Geelong Lawn managed to take the final set 6-3, leaving the match still tied on sets but Lara ahead by three games.

Section 9 saw Ocean Grove Blue and Leopold tied on sets and games after the singles, but with Leopold’s Tom Scorpo winning his second set for the morning 6-3 with Lincoln Wilson, then Aldrin Shando with Elih Tembo missing out by the narrowest of margins 6-5, Leopold won the day by two games. Bailey Cairncross finished the season for Ocean Grove Blue undefeated in singles.

Section 6 Boys was the closest result for the day with Highton getting over minor premiers Grovedale by just one game.

Moving indoor due to the rain, the singles matches were identical with sets one and two decided 6-4, then sets three and four decided 6-0, leaving the teams level of both sets and games. Grovedale took the first doubles 6-3, but at 4-0 down in the second looked out of it, before winning 2 games, but were not able to get over the line with Heath Agustsson and Joash Worldon finishing off the set 6-2 for Highton giving them the win by the narrowest of margins.

The two Green Ball sections were both decided 5-1, with Drydale defeating Waurn Ponds in one and Bannockburn defeating Grovedale in two.

In the girls sections, Highton were Champions in Section 5 with a 6-0 win over Grovedale.

Annabel King and Amelia Richmond were unbeaten in their singles for the season for Highton.

Sections 2, 3 and 4 were 4-2 wins to Beachside over Highton and Western Heights Uniting over Centre Court, and Geelong Lawn over Surfcoast Torquay. Adele McNamara remained undefeated in singles for the season for Beachside, while Evie Ryan and Pearl Thompson

didn’t drop a game in their final for Uniting.

The closest match for the girls came in Section 1 where Grovedale took on Wandana Heights.

Both teams had strong wins over the other during the season so the result was anyone’s guess. Ebony Paull and Hazel Kadera had good wins in their singles for Grovedale, remaining undefeated for the season, and then paired up in the doubles to take a third set for the team, and with support from Yvette Harman and Jess Lee gave the team the win at three sets all with a two-game lead.