Gordon beats Eadle to win Tambour Tour Seacourt
Flynn retains Tambour Tour lead despite semi final loss
Louis Gordon has won his second Tambour Tour tournament, following on from his win at his home court at Petworth last season. He came through a tight semi final against Bertie Vallat then played a fantastic three set match against Zak Eadle to take the title at his childhood home court at Seacourt.
The first semi final was a much anticipated rematch of the five set epic the two had played at the British Open less than a month prior. Zak Eadle took the game to Will Flynn early, as his forces found their intended destination. Flynn took some time to get going, employing his usual Seacourt tactic of interrogating Eadle in the backhand corner, as he was clearly more comfortable with the Seacourt bounce than his opponent.. The match see-sawed depending on who was at the service end, with chases a rare and valued commodity. Eadle had a 3/1 lead, before Flynn won three in a row to take a 4/3 lead. Eadle then had a run of serves, going up 5/4. Eadle was irate with a floor call at better than 4, giving Flynn a chance to level up at 5-all. The final game went to deuce, with Flynn having a brace of set points before conceding a chase. Eadle defended both, before winning his own set point as Flynn found the top of the net.
The loss of the first set seemed to weight on Flynn as his previously clinical shot selection started to decline. Eadle worked through the second set calmly and composed. His serving tightned too, leaving Flynn to boast out of trouble but never had quite enough angle on it. Flynn recovered briefly to 3-all, but never looked confident enough to press home an advantage. Eadle spent the bulk of the next three games at the service end, extending his lead as Flynn struggled to find any useful shots. Eadle had five match points at 5/3, which Flynn managed to defend, eventually finding his cut-volley to hit to good length. Eadle eventually won the match on his eighth match point, finally causing Flynn to miss a volley.
The second semi final was a closely fought battle between Bertie Vallat and Louis Gordon. Vallat played his signature floor game, rubbing up against Gordon’s forcing game. The two balanced out with Vallat moving Gordon around the court and preventing him playing his big shots. Neither player established much of a lead throughout the first set. Gordon eventually won the first set in the 5-all game defending a worse than 3 chase in a long rally that Vallat eventually hit long.
Vallat had the run of the first few games of the second set, but it didn’t last long as Gordon finally found the range of his forces. He sacrificed some power for more control as he chased down a 0/3 deficit. Both players increased their game, but Gordon looked increasingly in control of proceedings with Vallat increasingly struggling to find a reliable method of winning points. Vallat defended the first set point on a hazard chase by returning an otherwise good railroad into chase the line, but couldn’t do the same on the second, with Gordon moving on to the final.
In the final, Gordon continued his forcing game against Eadle, having found his touch in the semi final. Both players were on form, but Gordon always seemed to be able to find a useful dedans on the key points. The early stages of the set were evenly exchanged, but then Gordon ran away with it, winning five straight games to take the set.
Gordon then disappeared at the start of the second set, failing to get a force on target until the seventh game, and not repeating the feat for the remainder of the set. His stints at the service end were brief, as Eadle’s tight serving had Gordon hitting a lot of balls into the net. Eadle was untroubled towards the end of the set, with Gordon attempting to take a toilet break at 5/3 assuming the set was already over.
Gordon’s radar returned in the first point of the final set, sliding in a main wall dedan past Eadle. Eadle responded in kind, with a run of dedans when he returned to the hazard end. Both players switched to high serves to reduce the ability of their opponents to force, but Eadle’s wasn’t quite tight enough. He grew increasily frustrated as Gordon slowly built a lead in the set, dropping his racket on several occasions and diving into the corners in a desparate attempt to stay in the points. Eadle managed to just hold on, as the errors from Gordon grew the errors from Eadle declined. Eadle brought the match back to 4-all. Gordon then switched back to his underarm twist, which gave him the edge for the next two games. Gordon won the match beating a 1 and 2 chase with one last dedans.
“I wasn’t really considering playing at one point, so just came into this not expecting much and to come through two really tight matches - really really happy to get the win,” said Gordon. “I had a couple of purple patches [with my force]. Luckily I wasn’t hitting any beams which is always helpful. But when it mattered they were going in.”
The Tambour Tour now moves on to Canford on 18-19 January, while the next Tambour Development Tour will be at Leamington on 11-12 January.
Match results:
11 am (Semi Final): Will Flynn lost to Zak Eadle 5/6 4/6
12:30 pm (Semi Final): Bertie Vallat lost to Louis Gordon 5/6 5/6
3 pm (Final) Zak Eadle Louis Gordon 3/6 6/3 2/6
Tambour Tour standings after round 2:
Will Flynn, 35 points
Louis Gordon, 30 points
Zak Eadle, 25 points
James Medlow, 20 points
Thomas Durack, 10 points
Bertie Vallat, 10 points
Chris Aley, 5 points
Tim Armstrong, 5 points
Craig Greenhalgh, 5 points
Adam Player, 5 points
Jonny Whitaker, 5 points