James Murphy
TENNIS returned to the region over the weekend, following a lengthy break over the Christmas/New Year period.
Mount Gambier and District tennis resumed on Saturday with Round 11 of the senior competition after seven weeks off the court.
In the Division 1 competition all three fixtures were one-sided, with the closest meeting played at Glencoe between the hosts and Uniting.
Even then, the final margin was a 9-3 set win to the guests, while over at Mount Schank a visiting Reidy Park claimed a 11-1 victory.
Back in the Blue Lake city West Gambier hosted Mount Gambier for a strong 10-2 set win.
Uniting remains comfortable on top of the premiership ladder after its triumph over Glencoe, with a three-win buffer over second-placed West.
Glencoe’s Dylan Childs won the number one men’s singles with a strong 6-4 win over Andrew van den Hurk.
However, that would be the only singles success for the home team.
The remaining six sets were won by Uniting, with the closest another 6-4 result in Daniel Moon’s win over Hamish Gordon.
Glencoe’s success was also limited in the doubles, with just two sets falling their way.
Childs managed to win two-from-two when partnering with Tim Biggins for a 6-2, 6-4 win over van den Hurk and Jace Maxwell.
Sarah Edwards and Abbie Cocks were also successful with a tiebreaker win over Tessa Megaw and Alison Telford.
Megaw won her other doubles match, played with Ashlea Dunn against Sarah and Laura Edwards for a 6-4 victory.
The other sets also went Uniting’s way and at the end of the day it was a comfortable win for the ladder leaders.
That comfort was shared by Reidy Park, who only dropped one set on the way to victory over Mount Schank.
That came in the form of a 6-1 triumph to Alex Laube over Ty Lang, with the remaining 11 sets won by Reidy.
The final Division 1 match for the round was the only contested in Mount Gambier.
West hosted Gambier to open the 2024 leg of the season and wasted no time showing why it is currently ranked second in the competition.
Among the highlights were a 7-5 win to West’s Toby Stutley over Gambier’s William Le Cornu, along with a tiebreaker in the same doubles rubber.
After winning a set each, both 6-4, Stutley and Peyton Robinson emerged victorious 10-4 in the tiebreak over Le Cornu and Edward Kutny.
The women’s sets were all convincingly won by West, with the hosts only losing four games across the total of six sets.
Round 12 will be contested this weekend, with the match of the round looking to be between fourth-placed Mount Gambier and third-placed Reidy Park.
