Last Saturday the Yarrawonga Lawn Tennis club hosted the North Eastern Association Challenge.
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This involves players from Shepparton, Bendigo and Albury. Each association brought their absolute best players. In tricky windy conditions the tennis was simply incredible to watch.
Yarrawonga was extremely well represented with Jack Bassett, John Brunner, Grant Chappell, Fraser Bennett, Viktor Lairson, Ellen Bruce and Tess Bassett all playing.
Each performed at their best and enjoyed the opportunity to compete at such a high level.
Points were recorded for each set won with the final results being Shepparton 200, Albury 187 and Bendigo 113.
All in attendance were glowing in their praise of the conditions of the court. It is hoped that Yarrawonga will again host this event next season.
Cobram Challenge
On Sunday morning 12 older juniors travelled to Cobram to participate in a friendly hit. The aim was to experience hitting against some different opponents.
Each player completed one set of singles and two sets of doubles.
Congratulations to Yarrawonga representatives Thomas Lawrence, Anthony Nieuwenhout, Noah Cox, Tague Saunders, Jackson Prosser, Hudson Matthews, Finn Bruce, Jack Carmichael, Jack Bruce, Charlotte Wren, Eliza Lawrence and Sophia Connell.
Saturday Juniors
Overnight rain meant that the courts were too wet for the junior program. Whilst the players would have been disappointed, there would have been a lot of parents who enjoyed the sleep in.
Tennis will resume next Saturday as usual and will be the second last morning before Christmas.
The final round of the Premier League will be played between the Eagles and Kangaroos with the Tigers battling it out against the Bombers in the other match.
Wilby and District
Round Seven of the Wilby and District Tennis produced an interesting combination of results with a wash out, a forfeit and one match played.
The early morning Saturday rain meant Savernake’s courts were too wet in their match against Burramine. Due to other commitments, Mulwala couldn’t put a squad together against Telford.
In the match that was played Wilby hosted their neighbouring rival Tungamah. Tungamah men lead by skipper Jamie Hicks won all six sets with his team of Tague Saunders, Thomas Lawrence, Tague Saunders and Ernie Buerckner all playing well.
In the ladies section Tungamah again proved too strong to win the ladies section six sets to zero. Kiera Buerckner, Billie Buerckner, Annabelle Buerckner and Taylah Chessells were all in great form. Tungamah had a clean sweep in the mixed to claim the eight points for the day.
Wilby battled hard all day and it is fantastic to see so many juniors in both sides.
After round seven the ladder is Telford 45, Tungamah 43, Savernake 34, Burramine 24, Wilby 13, Mulwala 9.
This week there will be all Friday night games with a double header at Yarrawonga with Burramine hosting Wilby and Telford playing Tungamah.
In the other match Savernake will travel to Mulwala.
Tuesday Mens Tennis
The second round of Tuesday mens was played last week. It was fantastic to see some returning players acting as fill-ins.
There was some good tennis played during the night. The night finished with a debriefing over pizza and refreshments with all in attendance leaving in good spirits.
Laver had a good battle with Federer with the final score four sets to two. Corey Beggs again proved the dominant player winning all of his sets.
There was a similar score in Edberg against Nadal with Edberg the victors four sets to two. Returning player Brendan Foran hasn’t lost any of his skill being undefeated.
Agassi and Connors had a great battle with the sets shared three all. Agassi were declared the victors by two games. No player won all of their sets.
Borg and McEnroe battled out as they did during the early 1980s. Borg was the winner on this occasion four sets to two. Youngster Anthony Nieuwenhout debuting in this competition won all of his matches.
Djokovic won four sets to two against Wilander although Wilander won by two games. This type of result is rare but certainly showed how even the sets were.
For Djokovic Daryl Bennett was best on court not dropping a set.
Rounding out a night of close tennis Lendl defeated Sampras four sets to two. Mitchell Moore was hitting the ball very nicely to not lose a set.
The ladder after round two is Borg 13, Lendl 13, Laver 12, Agassi 11, Becker 10, Connors 9, Edberg 8, McEnroe 6, Djokovic 5, Wilander 5, Nadal 4, Federer 4, Sampras 4.
Thursday Ladies Tennis
The final round of the regular Thursday Night Ladies concluded last week. It was great to see so many ladies having a hit.
It was interesting to hear comments at the recent Seniors Tournament who saw this ladies competition take place. They were in total amazement that a social ladies competition would attract so many players on a weekly basis.
So many people commented that this simply doesn’t happen at many clubs. This is testament to the club and to the competition organisers Narelle Bassett and Gert Brunner.
On the court the dominant Rice Bubbles had another strong five sets to one win over Coco Pops. Claire Primmer and Alice Cooper combined extremely well to not lose a set.
Weeties outdone this performance winning all six sets against Nutri Grains. The Weeties squad comprising of Sara Govan, Lara Angwin, Laura Nunn and Michelle Barry were all in fantastic form.
Cornflakes defeated Fruity Bites five sets to one although there were some very close sets. Tamara Nixon and Nicole Dowling were both undefeated for the night.
Just Rights had a four sets to two win over Cheeerios with the game tally almost even indicating close matches. Emily Linehan was best on court with three wins.
Fruit Loops had the same scoreline over Special Ks who battled hard. Tess Bassett won all of her matches in a good display of tennis.
The final ladder is Rice Bubbles 40, Weeties 32, Fruit Loops 27, Cornflakes 25, Coco Pops 24, Fruity Bites 21, Special Ks 21, Cheerios 18, Nutri Grains 17 and Just Rights 15.
This week there will be the rankings shoot out where players will be grouped in similar abilities.
At the conclusion of the night there will be an analysis of the season over refreshments and pizza.
Goulburn Murray Tennis
The Goulburn Murray Tennis Association continued throughout the northeast of Victoria on the weekend. This competition is fantastic as it allows players to compete against people from other clubs.
Yarrawonga’s Division three team travelled to Tatura on Saturday. Debuting this week for the team was Amy Lairson and Anthony Nieuwenhout and their efforts were appreciated.
Amy was in great form comprehensively winning all of her three sets for the day. Ang Mitchell and Renee Byrne also played very well with Ang winning three matches and Renee two.
The mens combination of Anthony, Noel Thomas and Xav Chessells all battled hard with Noel and Xav winning their respective mixed set.
At the end of the day it couldn’t have got much closer with each team winning five sets and Tatura taking the day by a single game.
In Division two Numurkah hosted Mooroopna. Yarrawonga’s Hayley Bennett was striking the ball well to win her singles 6/4 and have a narrow lost in her mixed set.
The home side were too strong to win seven sets to four. Tess Bassett had a good singles win and a tie break win in her doubles match.
Hayley Bennett played really well to win 6/0 in her singles match. Overall after some close Mooroopna were too strong to win eight sets to three.
Rock up and play sessions
The YLTC holds social aggregate style tennis on Tuesday morning commencing at 9am for ladies and Wednesday at 1pm for mens social hit.
There is no compulsion to attend each of these on a weekly basis although once you have tried it once it will be hard to not keep going back.