Fahey & Taylor-Matthews almost hit Golden Set at Australian Open
Pridmore & Booth's volley to victory against Will Flynn and Claire Fahey
The Australian Open doubles has kicked off with some high-octane matches at the Hobart Real Tennis Club with four excellent quarter final matches.
Lewis Williams teamed up with John Woods-Casey for the first time to open up the doubles competition, with the absence of their usual Prested-based partners. They came up against the Hobart pairing of Nick Stenning and Darcy Webster-Jones. Williams thrilled the crowd with some inventive stroke-play, while Woods-Casey played his usual consistent role mopping up any loose balls. However the crowd locked in behind the Hobart pair, cheering them on through a couple of games late in the first set.
Webster-Jones and Stenning put the pressure on at the start of the second set, building a 3-1 lead on the back of some good aggressive volleying from Webster-Jones. Williams and Woods-Casey seemed a little absent at times, but fought back well, slowly turning the momentum over a couple of long deuce games. By the end of the set, they were firing again, racing through the last three games. The third was much easier for them, barring a couple of games when the Hobart pair had a run at the service end.
The second match flew by as Camden Riviere partnered with Chris Chapman for the first time. Their opponents also debuted together - Baudouin Huynh-Lenhardt with Sam Legg. Riviere danced around the court effortlessly, giving Chapman the opportunity to boast around all the angles. Huynh-Lenhardt at times seemed intent on hitting the ball between his legs while Legg managed to find his way through their opponents defences for a collection of dedans. However, at one point Legg found consecutive double faults. Aside from dropping a game towards the end of the first set and again at the start of the third, Riviere and Chapman progressed through without incident, winning the match with a triplet of dedans.
Ben Taylor-Matthews and Rob Fahey had a big opportunity to play out a Golden Set against Jackson Pastoor and Tony Blom. The number 2 seeds won the first five games without dropping a point, greatly aided by a large number of shots struck by Blom and Pastoor into the net. Fahey and Taylor-Matthews were hardly pressured, hitting the ball around comfortably and letting the unforced errors rack up from the other end. Pastoor scored their only point of the set at the start of the 5-0 game sliding a dedans past Taylor-Matthews defences.
The second set was not much better for the Hobart pair, winning just eight points in the set. By the third, Pastoor and Blom had lifted themselves off the floor and started playing some more shots. They found a brace of winning galleries on their way to taking the second game of the third set. Taylor-Matthews and Fahey relaxed into the final set, cruising to a straight sets victory.
After a couple hours break, play returned for the much anticipated cocktail match between Australia’s Oliver Pridmore and Kieran Booth against England’s Claire Fahey and Will Flynn. All four players struck the ball hard, with the ball flying all around the court. Although the early games were tight, Booth and Pridmore found their rhythmn earlier and were able to grow their momentum through the first set. Flynn and Fahey struggled to find chases and spent the bulk of the set at the hazard end. Booth won the set with a ball that rattled around the ledges of the winning gallery before going in.
Booth and Pridmore held their edge through the second set, especially in the Flynn to Pridmore service games. Unfortunately for Fahey and Flynn, their forcing accuracy was not good enough, putting plenty of balls onto the back penthouse for Booth and Pridmore to mop up. Meanwhile, Fahey uncharacteristically missed several easy balls of the back penthouse due to the pressure being built up by her Australian opponents. Booth won the set with another winning gallery, their sixth of the match.
After a long discussion, Fahey decided to remain on the Booth serve for the third set. Flynn had the crowd in raucous laughter after launching his racket over the net trying to hit a high penthouse ball from the back galleries, being picked up by Pridmore before the ball had even become dead. Pridmore and Booth remainded ascendant through the back half of the set as the British pair seemed a little resigned to their fate.
Match results:
Nick Stenning & Darcy Webster-Jones lost to Lewis Williams & John Woods-Casey (3) 3/6 3/6 2/6
Camden Riviere & Chris Chapman (1) def Sam Legg & Baudouin Huynh-Lenhardt 6/1 6/0 6/1
Tony Blom & Jackson Pastoor lost to Rob Fahey & Ben Taylor-Matthews (2) 0/6 0/6 1/6
Kieran Booth & Oliver Pridmore (4) def Claire Fahey & Will Flynn 6/2 6/3 6/1
Order of play for Thursday (all times AEDT):
10am: Camden Riviere (1) vs John Woods-Casey (7)
followed by: Lewis Williams (5) vs Ben Taylor-Matthews (2)
followed by: Chris Chapman (4) vs Kieran Booth (6)
not before 6pm: Oliver Pridmore (8) vs Robert Fahey (3)
Excellent summary.