Long, Hamilton take out top seeds to reach Moore Family Office Summer Challenge final
Fahey and Taylor-Matthews knocked out while owing handicaps
Darren Long and Vaughan Hamilton will play off in the final of the first ever Moore Family Office Summer Challenge final, having both won through their respective semi finals at the Oratory on Thursday.
In the first semi-final, Rob Fahey gave a Rec 15, Owe 1/2 15 handicap to Darren Long. Long took a few minutes to adjust to the relatively unfamiliar pace of handicap tennis, with Fahey quickly pushing through the first batch of points. Long was serving exclusively railroads, for both the first and second serves which encouraged Fahey to blast the ball towards the dedans. Long was betting that he could take advantage of enough misses to win the few points he needed to take games. He took advantage however it would come, notably with an over-the-shoulder volley on an early 40-all point. With the early lead established, Fahey looked to consolidate but the amount of time spent at the hazard end continued to give Long opportunities to strike, especially around the large Oratory tambour. Long won three straight games between 1-3 and 4-3. Although he didn’t hit his targets with the same regularity as Fahey, his drives for the back wall often yielded chases.
Long had a couple of set points in the 5-4 game, which Fahey batted away until it was 40-all. What followed was one of the most remarkable restes of the tournament. Playing off a last gallery chase, Long repeatedly sent bullets at the grille corner, which Fahey was effortlessly swatting away. Then he hit a ball in front of the tambour but missing, wrong-footing Fahey who had set up expecting the ball to angle across him. The 57 year old dived across the court at full stretch, successfully putting the ball back into play barely an inch off the ground, before getting back to his feet to watch a ball sail past him into the grille.
Long’s confidence continued to build through the second set, quickly establishing the lead. Fahey, pinned down at the receiving end once again, struggled to make progress against the handicap as Long kept his railroads hugging tight to the battery wall. Fahey, therefore, couldn’t find the couple of points he needed at the start of each game to draw level to Long. Long could rely on the scoreboard pressure to illicit errors, despite Fahey throwing caution to the wind at 0-40 down. Fahey couldn’t convert enough chances, and Long held his lead throughout, progressing to the final.
The second semi-final saw Vaughan Hamilton take on Ben Taylor-Matthews with the more tame handicap of Love-Owe 15. Hamilton still saw it as a licence to play his shots, ripping several unplayable cut-volleys and regularly finding a force down the middle. He matched Taylor-Matthews shot for shot through much of the first set, with both players finding better fortune at the service end as the court was very readily taking a railroad. Hamilton always was searching for chases, looking to win the serve and use the handicap to put pressure on Taylor-Matthews. As such, Taylor-Matthews spent more time in the danger of the hazard end than he would have liked, ceding the control of the play to Hamilton who was able to press home his early advantage. He won the first set 6/2, having been 0-40 down in the final game.
Taylor-Matthews was more in the game through the second set. After testing out some other serving options, he settled on the combination of a railroad and high serve. He found chases more readily as well, albeit long ones, and converted points into games more efficiently. The most comical moment of the tournament to date came in the fourth game of the second set, playing off a better-than-6 chase. Taylor-Matthews’s shot came off the high back wall out into the hazards, making Hamilton chase the ball down as he could not leave it to bounce. After playing the shot, Hamilton had so much momentum moving forward that not even the net was going to stop him. Instead, he dived straight over it, ending up sprawled on the floor on the first gallery line on the wrong side of the net. Fittingly, he chose to climb back over the net instead of walk around again. From then on, Hamilton was unstoppable, wining four straight games with his play becoming better and better. He closed out the match comfortably despite the nerves showing through.
Long and Hamilton will play off in the final on Friday, to be played in a best of 5 set format.
Match results:
Thursday 5:30PM (Semi-final): Robert Fahey (1) (Owe 1/2 15) lost to Darren Long (Rec 15) 4/6 2/6
Thursday 7:00PM (Semi-final): Vaughan Hamilton (Love) def Ben Taylor-Matthews (2) (Owe 15) 6/2 6/4
Upcoming matches:
Friday 6:00PM (Final): Darren Long (Love) vs Vaughan Hamilton (Owe 1/4 15)