Almanac Tennis – EDTA Div. 8 Boys’ Grand Final: ETKG v The Drive – Even more sweet

Even more sweet

ETKG v The Drive

8.15am Saturday 24 March,

Trinity Gardens Tennis Club, Adelaide,

Aidan Hammond

 

This year ETKG have done so well. We have finished top and got a ticket straight through to the grand final. Today we will be taking on The Drive who we have beaten but could cause an upset. We go to Trinity and get warmed up. I am playing singles today so I let the doubles warm up. The doubles eventually start and I don’t know what the score is at the time but we are winning more points then we are losing. The second doubles win 6-0 and it is looking good. A different singles starts after we won 6-0. In the first doubles we are playing really well. They are playing really well as well but we are playing better and end up winning about 6-3. Then another singles game starts and we are doing pretty well. A court that we are not assigned to is free so I go over there and start my singles.

 

I do a bit of a hit around with him to rally the ball and get my eye in. I do some serves as well. A lot of the time I warm up longer than the other players want to but I really want to make sure I have my eye in before the game. The game starts and I win the spin and chose to serve. It is good that I warmed up for so long because I won my first game on my serve with no double faults. The next game he wins it and it looks like it is going to go on serve. We go on serve again but I won mine by more than he did. The next point he breaks my serve and it is 3-2 his serve. I manage to break back because I find out how to beat him: hit it to his backhand.

 

I win my serve again and then break his serve again. It is 5-3 my serve. Then all of a sudden I start hitting the ones to his backhand out. He breaks my serve and wins his. It is 5-5 and it seems like I have lost concentration. I lose the game to love and I am annoyed but then my teammates come over to me to make me feel better. This was a really good tactic; we won the grand final. We had won the other 2 singles that we had played. It was currently 4-1. We walked around the courts to see the other game, but we had lost. We didn’t care because we had won overall. We were so happy. We also won on games as well.

 

It was 10:00 and the presentation was at 11:00 so we decided to head off and have a celebratory sandwich at subway in Tranmere. We ate our subs and had fun talking and celebrating there. Then after that we went back to the association presentation. We had to wait a while for the lower division and the modified rules teams but then got our turn. We got our photo taken and got our trophies. I stayed around and had a hit for a bit longer. After that we went home and we will see each other again at the club’s presentations at 4:00.

 

After I watched the AFLW grand final we went to the club presentations. We got mentions for winning the grand final and another trophy. After that we went down to the bottom courts to have a hit and a mess around. 2 balls go over the fence. After that we have a soft drink, something to eat and talk. It’s great to hear that everyone on my team plays footy. We eventually said goodbye and maybe will see everyone next season. Who knows?

 

Reflecting on the season, at the start I was still at modified rules technique but the competition was not good enough so I got moved up 3 divisions. Right now I am at the normal level though which shows how much I have improved. I had only lost 1 game in the last season compared to 5 this season. It has been a challenge but my team and I stepped up and won the premiership. In winter last year we won every game and lost the grand final. That makes this premiership even sweeter.

 

Looking at next season I will be playing winter tennis and seeing that I won the premiership and more than 50% of my sets I will probably be moving up to Division 7. My teammates are not playing winter and will probably be moved up to at least Division 6 in the summer. So if I have a good winter season we might be in the same team again. If that happens we would be giving another go at the trophy but until winter tennis season, Goodbye!

 

ETKG vs. The Drive

Singles

1. 0-6

2. 6-4

3. 6-3

4. 5-6

Doubles

1. 6-3

2. 6-0

ETKG – Sets: 4 – Games: 29

The Drive – Sets: 2 Games: 22

 

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Comments

  1. Dave Brown says

    Congratulations, Aidan. Great all around effort by the team. Bring on footy season!

  2. Thanks Dave!

  3. Malcolm Ashwood says

    Well done Aidan

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