Premierships won and lost in local tennis

Section 4 premiers Coco Bewares: Tony Bongiorno, Daniel Fraser and Bradley Walker. (pictures supplied)

Tennis Geelong Triples Spring Season 1 drew to a close with some dominant performances and thrilling finishes in the grand finals on Thursday October 20.

Section 1 saw Moolap Two Phones Chol taking on Highton’s Top Blokes. Moolap won the autumn season Section 2 title and gained a steady number one player in its move up to Section 1

in Callum Davey.

The acquisition paid off with a dominant regular season and first round of finals, only losing two sets along the way. However, those two sets had come in week one in a rain-shortened match against Highton, the runners-up in Section 1 Autumn.

Two Phones Chol never let the Top Blokes into the match. After four sets, Highton had only won seven games and the rout was on. Highton played for pride in the last two sets and was competitive, but Moolap won 6-0 36-15.

Moolap Goats were favourites heading into the Section 2 decider against newcomers Western Heights Uniting. Moolap secured the Section 3 title in the Autumn Triples season and only dropped four sets throughout the Spring 1 regular season.

However, Western Heights was not going to be an easy out with top player Jeff Smith leading the way. Smith turned in a strong performance, winning two of his three sets against Moolap’s number one Kyle Beattie, including a 6-2 singles win. However, Moolap’s Mick Kotwic only dropped five games in three sets, propelling the Goats to a 4-2 29-19 win.

Grovedale 2 won both regular season matchups against the Winks Wizards, but both sides had been very competitive. The Section 3 grand final matchup proved to live up to that billing.

Grovedale was missing its number one Matt Francis, but found a strong reserve player in Matt Lyon. Grovedale’s Jarrod Bateup took a 6-3 win in the first singles, but the Wizards won the next three sets, including both the first two doubles rubbers and a 6-0 singles win by Rohan White.

Lyon took the last singles 6-0, but it wasn’t quite enough to overcome the doubles dominance of the Wizards in a 4-2 27-23 victory.

The closest battle of the evening came in Section 4, where a rematch of the Summer Section 4 grand final took place between Coco Bewares and Table 29 Tennis Association. In the matchup from March, Table 29 didn’t have number one Thomas Crosbie, and Coco Bewares won their first premiership.

This time around Crosbie was available and it promised to make the match a near-coinflip. The first four sets were split, with Coco Bewares’ Daniel Fraser and captain Brad Walker dominant with 6-1 singles wins, but Table 29 won both doubles in strong fashion.

Down three games going into the last two sets, Table 29 needed a big win from Crosbie in singles. He delivered with a 6-2 set, but it was not quite enough as Coco Bewares won the doubles 6-3, and the night 3-3 25-23.

Moolap finished top of the ladder in Section 5, with Other Guys playing host to the Hall of Framers. The Other Guys had just played Hall of Framers on the final regular season match and were down on the scoreboard when that match was washed out after four sets.

The first two sets of the grand final rematch were close, with 6-5 and 6-3 wins to Moolap. The momentum continued to build however, and Moolap closed strongly, finishing with a 6-0 36-15 premiership in its first season of Triples competition.