Flynn firms as favourite after clinical Seacourt Silver Racquet quarter final
Hamilton holds back resurgent Vallat to reach second consective semi final
The 2025 Seacourt Silver Racquet, England’s premier handicap tournament for top players, is rapidly approaching its conclusion following the completion of quarter final matches on Saturday.
The first quarter final saw Bertie Vallat owing 15 every fourth game to Vaughan Hamilton. The Prested professoinal was not on song in the first set, playing exasperated and loose tennis without plan or methodology. His amateur opponent was calm and methodical, keeping his play tight and well structured, avoiding giving away any loose balls. Vallat ran through the first set in barely 20 minutes.
Hamilton was much more composed in the second set, simplifying his game and being willing to engage Vallat in the long rallies until he found an advantage rather than by forcing an end to the rally sooner. Vallat, who was previously content with awaiting the mistake from Hamilton, found himself unable to hit winners through the set.
By the third set, Hamilton launched an all out attack, forcing Vallat onto the backfoot as he tried to weather the storm. Hamilton burst through Vallat’s floodgates and wrecked havoc as a result, finding shots and winners he struggled for earlier in the match. Vallat was knocked out his style, trying to match Hamilton shot for shot without much success. Vallat’s resistence finally came at 2-5, match point down with a series of long rallies that had some of the best strokeplay of the match. He rolled off the next two and a half games from the service end, before Hamilton finally found a last gallery chase. He didn’t last long at the service end, with a tight not-up call conceding a worse than one chase on the game point. In the deciding game, Hamilton raced to 40-love, winning the match on his fifth match point. Hamilton moved on to the final day for the second year in a row.
The second quarter final was a highly anticipated affair between the defending champion Will Flynn and the player who beat him the fortnight prior on the same court at the Pol Roger Trophy semi final, Robert Shenkman. The pressure was on Flynn as he was the highest priced player in the player auction at the previous night’s tournament dinner. Shenkman gave Flynn 15 every game and immediately used it to good effect, unleashing his forcing game and putting Shenkman on the defensive. The low height of the Seacourt roof meant Shenkman did not have enough height to mount his usual defensive boasted volley, which when combined with scoreboard pressure lead to mistakes. Flynn had already reached set point before Shenkman even won his only game of the set. Through the second set, Flynn continued his dominant play, hitting winner after winner and looking every bit a threat to the later stages.
Next saw Ben Taylor-Matthews playing Lewis Williams with a handicap of Owe ½ 15, Rec ½ 15. The match was a battle of the forehands, whether it was boasting down the main wall, chasing balls from the high tambour or the down the middle exchanges. Both players were extremely effective at pulling the ball out of the air and into very attacking positions in their opponents court. The battle was about who could do it better and more often. That player would be Williams, who was able to combine his aggression with enough scoreboard pressure from the handicap to take the first set.
The second set then tipped decidedly in Taylor-Matthews’s favour. Every shot was putting Williams under pressure, coupled with a pacey force that he had rarely demonstrated in recent years. On top of that, he played his forehand volley with world class precision putting Williams under constant and sustained pressure. He held back a big push from Williams at the end of the set, absorbing his aggression and playing smart, tactical tennis.
Williams took a break between the second and third sets to regroup and immediately caught Taylor-Matthews cold, conceding the first game to consecutive return of serve errors. From there, Williams straight away was able to exert some more scoreboard pressure, with Taylor-Matthews leaning more and more on his forcing as he conceded a 1-4 deficit. The World Number 4 fought on to bring the score back to 3-4, but missed a couple of targets by mere millimeters to drop the eighth game. From there, Williams pushed through the last game to book his slot in the semi final.
The last match was between the two qualifiers Benedict Yorston and Tom Weaver, played off level. It was a tantalising matchup between a player who had honed their game at Seacourt and one more accustomed to a more lively, rallying style. Weaver had the better of the early exchanges, leading 3-1 and then 5-2. He had his first set point in the next game, which Yorston held off with one of the longest rallies of the match. Yorston then started to play into Weaver’s weaknesses, finding a nagging angle into his backhand corner. Yorston’s willingness to chase everything down brought him back from the brink, moving through to 5-all. Weaver won the first two points of the game, but Yorston was able to bring up a couple of chases. A few nervy points later, and he defended them both chases. Weaver brought up his second set point with a forced dedans, Yorston stayed calm and won the next two points with some excellent and dogged retrieving, taking the set by the narrowest of margins.
Yorston then had the wind at his back throughout the second set, firmly on top of the game. Weaver thrashed it around in hope towards the end but Yorston was equal to any challenge thrown at him as he bagelled the set, locking in his maiden Silver Racquet semi final.
Match results (Quarter Finals):
10:00 am: Vaughan Hamiton (Love) def Bertie Vallat (Owe ¼ 15) 1/6 6/1 6/5
12:00 noon: Robert Shenkman (Love) lost to Will Flynn (Rec 15) 1/6 3/6
2:00 pm: Ben Taylor-Matthews (Owe ½ 15) lost to Lewis Williams (Rec ½ 15) 3/6 6/3 3/6
4:00 pm: Tom Weaver (Love) vs Benedict Yorston (Love) 5/6 0/6
Order of play for Sunday:
10:00 am (Semi Final 2): Will Flynn (Love) vs Vaughan Hamilton (Owe ¼ 15)
12:00 noon (Semi Final 1): Lewis Williams (Owe ½ 15) vs Benedict Yorston (Love)
3:00 pm (Final): Winner Semi Final 1 vs Winner Semi Final 2