Defending champion Merola survives Yorston scare at Category A Open
Gale returns to competitive play with narrow victory over Hamilton
The Category A Open — also known as the 0-9s — has been warmly embraced by its new hosts at the Prested Tennis Club, with great support throughout the quarter finals on Saturday.
The event had been held at Oxford for the first two decades of the millenium, before moving to Manchester for two editions in 2023 and 2024. It sees the best players in the UK with a handicap greater than zero lock horns and has often been a pathway for those seeking to push into the world’s top 10 and latter stages of Open championships.
Play started on Friday evening with a preliminary round match between Benedict Yorston and former Prested professional Mark Hobbs. Hobbs brought a lot of local support, cheering him on through every point. But it was Yorston who proved to have the game plan more suited to the intricacies of the Prested court, serving tight drags with the aim of cramping Hobbs up on the glass back wall. Hobbs was not able to get an attacking shot away on the return of serve, feeding into Yorston’s preferred retrieving game. More often than not, Yorston was able to keep the rally going until Hobbs made an error under pressure. Hobbs slowed the pace of the play towards the end of the second set, straining audibly during every point, but despite winning a couple more games it was in vain.
Matches resumed on Saturday morning with the quarter finals. The first contest pitted the two Prested professionals, Levi Gale and Vaughan Hamilton, against each other. It was Gale’s first competitive fixture since he withdrew from the British Open in November with a stress fracture in his tibia. However by watching his play, you would not know he had taken time out from the game; he was moving freely around the court and striking the ball with heavy cut and plenty of power. Gale served almost exclusively railroads, enticing the return onto his forehand side and then pressuring Hamilton in the grille and tambour corner, making especially good use of the dead area underneath the grille on the glass back wall. Gale prevented Hamilton from hitting chases through the bulk of the first set, and looked to be on a roll going into the second.
Hamilton changed his approach going into the second set, hitting more straight forces that often seemed to target Gale directly, sending him limboing under balls as they headed for the dedans, Gale, meanwhile, couldn’t quite find the same accuracy in response. One somewhat comical point saw Hamilton chasing down a high ball that had missed the dedans to the first gallery, hoping to hit a winner. But he could only stand and watch as Gale lobbed the ball back. Hamilton had assumed it would fall a chase, but instead watched it bounce around on the penthouse a few times, finally deciding to turn and chase after it, hitting it Federer-style between his legs.
Hamilton moved to a small advantage in the set, eventually bringing up four set points across the 5-3 and 5-4 games. Gale had to dig deep to defend them, scraping balls back milimeters off the floor and boasting his way out of trouble. But defend them he did, bringing up a three match points of his own in the deciding game. Hamilton forced his way out of the first couple but couldn’t stick the third, sending Gale into the semi finals.
The second quarter final had a different tempo to the first. John Woods-Casey and Louis Gordon were both happy to keep the rallies short, looking to force or drive their way to a long chase. Both also cycled through their serving repertoire, with plenty of side walls, underarm twists and demi-piques on show, but very few railroads. At the start of the match, Gordon couldn’t find a good range on his returns, giving Woods-Casey the opportunity to establish a foothold in the match, but as the Australian approached the end of the set, Gordon’s forces hit the dedans with increasing regularity. Woods-Casey held his nerve and managed to find the games required for a one set lead.
Going into the second set, it looked as though Woods-Casey had succesfully nullified Gordon’s momentum, as the latter’s radar fell away again. But Gordon responed by finding a successfull high side-wall serving tactic, cramping Woods-Casey for room on the glass back wall. The rallies became longer and longer, with Woods-Casey throwing himself around the court to keep the ball alive. Gordon levelled up the set at 4-all, but Woods-Casey remained calm to finish off the match.
The third quarter final was a battle between two players who had started their careers at Prested, Claire Fahey and Lewis Williams. Fahey was in the build up for the Ladies World Championships in Newport, so was looking to use the match as an opportunity to test herself in her preparation. The first four games were closely contested, with the ever-growing crowd on tenderhooks to see which way the match would play out. But then Williams pulled away eight games in a row, wrapping up the first set in the process. Fahey would consistently hit decent chases, but Williams kept backing himself to beat them from the hazard end. As such, Williams conceded few points on his own serve, and was able to match Fahey shot for shot at the receivers end. A somewhat defeated Fahey acknowledged her solitary game of the second set to the crowd, as by that point she had lost her usual pep from her step.
The final match of the day was another inter-club battle, this time between the Radleians Nino Merola and Benedict Yorston. Merola came into the match as the defending champion, though that had been played in Manchester, a court with a distinctively different character to Prested. Merola was lackadaisical in his play, contrasted with the Duracell Bunny energy of his opponent. Yorston was able to starve Merola of chases, spending long passages of play at the service end. There, he was able to demonstrate his vast variety of Ronaldsonian serves, mixing it up for most restes and preventing Merola from hitting a rhythm with his counter-attack. When he was at the service end, Merola struggled to find an effective serve, often resorting to first serve bobbles. Merola slowly started to play himself into the match, but by that point he had conceeded a 5-1 deficit. Yorston brought up his ultimately successful set point with a clean ace from a serve disguised as a caterpillar but instead fell flush with the battery wall, followed by a grille on the next reste.
Throughout the second set, Merola was slowly able to tilt the balance of the match in his favour. He put away most of his aggressive arsenal, chosing selectively when to fire them if at all. Instead, he was more patient, using the court to his advantage where possible. Yorston had chances throughout the set, but couldn’t find the final press home to the finish. When Merola hit the ball into the grille to win the set, he raised both arms into the air ironically, as though he had just struck gold — it was the first such shot he had been able to successfully pull off thus far in the match.
By the final set, everything was going Merola’s way. Balls were rolling out of the knick, all the net cords were just rolling over and the ball always seemed to find the main wall before the tambour. He was also rolling in the targets, while Yorston was now the one looking out of ideas. Merola was finally able to utilize his serving proficiency, wrapping up the set easily 6/1 and sending him into a semi final against Williams, a rematch of the previous year’s final.
Play continues on Sunday with both the semi finals and finals to be played. All matches are available to be streamed via T&RA Media.
Match Results:
Friday 17:30 (Round of 16): Benedict Yorston def Mark Hobbs 6/1 6/3
11:00 (Quarter Final): Levi Gale (1) def Vaughan Hamilton 6/1 6/5
12:30 (Quarter Final): Louis Gordon lost to John Woods-Casey 4/6 4/6
14:00 (Quarter Final): Lewis Williams (3) def Claire Fahey 6/2 6/1
15:30 (Quarter Final): Benedict Yorston lost to Nino Merola (2) 6/2 3/6 1/6
Order of play for Sunday
10:00 (Semi Final 1): Levi Gale (1) vs John Woods-Casey
11:30 (Semi Final 2): Lewis Williams (3) vs Nino Merola (2)
15:00 (Final): Winner Semi Final 1 vs Winner Semi Final 2
Great commentary. Many thanks