10-0! Clean sweep for Warwick in the Varsity tennis

Warwick dominated in Sunday’s Varsity tennis, taking home all ten points without dropping a single set.

The women’s first and second, and men’s first, second and third teams, each competed in four singles matches and two doubles matches against their equal number from Coventry University.

“I’m obviously extremely happy about the result,” applauded Warwick Tennis team captain Gordon Tveito-Duncan, speaking to The Boar. “Winning every single match against Coventry, I couldn’t have asked for more from the guys and the girls.”

The day’s action opened with a stunning display of dominance from Warwick’s women’s second team.

Penny Tilsey and Emily Walker took their doubles match 6-3, 6-0 and closed out each of their singles matches 6-1, 6-0, whilst Carrie Smith and Terezie Simova destroyed Coventry with some of their best tennis to win both their doubles match and their singles matches, all without dropping a single game.

Next up, the men’s seconds saw Tveito-Duncan romp to victory alongside Raphael Lechner, without the loss of a game in their doubles match. Lechner completed his part of the drama with a 6-1, 6-0 victory. Tveito-Duncan finished his match comfortably 6-0, 6-1, despite following a tough hold of serve by losing to love during a Nathan Taylor service at the beginning of the second set.

The rest of the men’s seconds barely looked phased at all by the Coventry effort, with Charles Derrac and Danny Read finishing singles matches 6-1, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-0 respectively, and taking their doubles match 6-2, 6-0.

The men’s thirds continued the rush of Varsity points, albeit it with the added bonus of playing their doubles matches on Warwick Tennis Centre’s artificial clay outdoor courts. Warwick Tennis vice-captain Blake Searl and third-year psychologist Alex Lee joined forces to dominate the first pairing from Coventry’s men’s third team 6-0, 6-1. Also on the clay, Joey Dwonczyk and Matthias Kranke took on the remainder of the Coventry men’s thirds with a 6-1, 6-0 win.

Inside, there was little more ground made by the Coventry team. A slight lack of concentration saw Searl make four consecutive unforced errors – costing him a game in his second set against Shrudhan Shivakumar – but he nonetheless strolled to a 6-0, 6-1 win. Lee didn’t drop a game and Kranke finished his match 6-1, 6-0, whilst Dwonczyk had the most contested men’s singles match of the day so far in winning 6-2, 6-1.

Finally it was time for the women of Warwick Tennis to shine once again. The women’s firsts didn’t disappoint, offering some fantastic matches. Georgia Craven, who tops the bill for the women’s firsts, is yet to drop a game in BUCS singles matches this year. In disposing of Coventry’s Elyse Gallacher, it’s not hard to see why.

Both competitors came out with very aggressive play. The main theme quickly became groundstrokes falling foul of the net, interspersed with many an overshot first serve and unreturned serve. Double faults slowed Craven down during her service games, but her return proved indomitable and helped to keep the pressure on Gallacher throughout the very quick 6-0, 6-0 win for Warwick.

Gemma Praditngam faced Coventry’s number two, Justine Terry, in a much more highly contested match, which finished 6-2, 6-4. Later in the doubles, Praditngam and Craven joined forces in a lengthy disposal of Gallacher and Terry that ended 6-1, 6-3, as did the doubles match featuring Warwick’s Emily Theokritoff and Genevieve Shorthouse.

Theokritoff spent barely any time on court while racing to a 6-1, 6-0 singles victory over Coventry’s Lucy Ronaldson, whose team mate and namesake Lucy Matthews fell foul of another 6-1, 6-3 defeat at the hands – and racquet – of Shorthouse.

The men’s first matches were billed as the main feature of the day with good reason. Coventry’s first team are currently struggling in the bottom of the Premier North league, with Warwick’s firsts one league lower, near the top of the Midlands 3A. On paper, there was every chance of a Warwick upset on Sunday evening.

Both of the doubles matches were finished with some threat from the Coventry side, reflected somewhat in the identical scoreline of 6-1, 6-3.

Just four singles matches away from a Coventry whitewash, Warwick Tennis’s number four Edu Casas and Joe Harris made mincemeat of their opponents, wiping them out 6-0 6-0.

The top-billed match saw Marc Baghdadi’s tour de force suffer nigh identical sets, both seeing the Warwick University chemistry postgraduate looking most precarious when find himself 3-2 up against Coventry’s Jack Hedges. The first set was Baghdadi’s long before closing it 6-2, but even serving for the match 5-2 up in the second, Hedges looked to pose a serious threat.

Baghdadi saved his finest tennis for that last service game, however, making the best shot of the day when defending a break point. From behind the right extremity of the service line and with Hedges at his near-side net- dominating the point- Baghdadi made a lightning-fast passing shot that Hedges could only watch glide over the net and into the back right corner.

Hedges did defend one match point after that, but with a final smash at the net, Baghdadi’s solid display of Warwick’s finest tennis closed the match.

Meanwhile, drama unfolded for Rupert Larkin. His first set proved to be Coventry’s closest flirtation with the scoreboard for the entire day, eventually taking it for the home team 7-5. Finding his footing much more in the second set, however, Coventry’s dreams of denying annihilation fell to a 6-2 finish.

“Everyone won their matches pretty comfortably,” reaffirmed Tveito-Duncan. “Last year we dropped a few points, but this year as captain, I’m extremely happy. It tops off a really good season for both the women’s team and the men’s team.”

Warwick are now looking towards Wednesday’s BUCS cup quarter-finals, in which the men’s firsts and seconds are competing. Tveito-Duncan reckoned Varsity was the perfect warm-up, telling The Boar, “today’s performance should boost us a lot.”