The Annual Thornbury Lawn Tennis Club Tournament is the main tournament of the year in the Club. All preliminary matches were played during September and early October. Five finals were all scheduled for Saturday 14th October. A feature of this year’s finals was that four of the five finals featured juniors playing adults.
Men’s Singles
The Men’s Singles final was between Leo Lazarides and Steve Pikett.
Leo is 12 years old and has been playing tennis for only 3 years. He competes successfully in county and regional tournaments. His ambition is to become a professional tennis player. Despite being relatively small, he hits the ball with lots of power and spin and is extremely quick around the court.
By contrast, Steve has a lot of experience: he has played tennis for most of his life and is an extremely consistent player. He plays tennis in the higher divisions of the Avon Leagues and is the reigning Men’s Singles champion at the Olveston & Tockington Tennis Club.
This match was eagerly anticipated by many Club members because of the clash of styles. Steve took an early lead, but after some very accurate hitting, Leo grew in confidence and gained the upper hand, taking the first set 6-3. The second set was much tighter. The match went with serve up to 5-5. Leo managed to break Steve’s serve to give him 6-5 and clinched the match by holding his serve. The final score was 6-3, 7-5. A thrilling match, worthy of the final.
Men’s Doubles
The Men’s Doubles was another contest between adults and juniors. Felix Boyes/Freddie Savage, both in their twenties and Luke Johnson/Leo Lazarides, half their age.
There was some extremely big hitting in this match, with most of the rallies being very short and the scoreboard see-sawing one way and then the other. Luke/Leo were leading the first set 5-4, when Felix/Freddie broke Luke’s serve for 5-5. The next two games went with serve leading to a tense tie break which Felix/Freddie narrowly won 7-5. The second set was also very tight reaching 2-2. The consistency and the strong net play by Felix/Freddie began to pay big dividends and they went on to win the second set 6-3, giving an overall result of 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.
Mixed Doubles
The Mixed Doubles was the only all adult final, featuring Megan O’Connor/Brendan Wilde (winners of the President’s Plate tournament for the last 3 years) and Jo Hargreaves/Felix Boyes (winners of this tournament in 2015).
Jo/Felix made a strong start, reaching 3-0 before Megan/Brendan levelled the score at 4-4. Another break of serve saw Jo/Felix take the first set 6-4. In the second set, Jo/Felix again started strongly, taking an early lead, but Megan/Brendan fought back to a 5-4 lead. Match then went with serve to 6-6 and a tie break. In the tie break Jo/Felix made fewer errors and ultimately won the tie break 7-5. Then match score was 6-4, 7-6(7-5) to Jo & Felix.
Ladies Singles & Doubles
Between the preliminaries and the finals, Susanna Ogden, one of our young players, seriously injured her hand (whilst playing netball). She had made it through to the finals of the Ladies Singles and the Ladies Doubles but was unable to contest the finals. The Ladies Singles Champion is Sarah Hurley and the Ladies Doubles Champions are Jo Hargreaves and Sarah Hurley.
