Rising stars progress through Seacourt Silver Racquet quarter-finals
Flynn, Henman, Fahey and Hamilton win through to semi-finals in straight sets
Will Flynn, Claire Fahey, Henry Henman and Vaughan Hamilton will battle it out for the Seacourt Silver Racquet title, after each secured straight-sets wins in their quarter-final matches on Saturday
The first quarter-final saw battle between local amateur Luke Danby and Oratory professional Henry Henman. Henman’s loose serving and rash decision-making kept Danby interested, as Danby was keen to pounce on anything off the back wall. However, Henman’s retrieving — particularly his technique of fully turning into the wall to dig out balls from the corners — served him well as he was able to maintain a narrow lead throughout the first set. At no point did he fully stamp his authority on the set, with Danby pulling back to 4-all then 5-all. Henman won the final, deciding game to love.
The rally of the match came at the start of the second set, with Danby attacking the winning gallery and Henman at full stretch retrieval — including a well-judged behind the back shot — as he wresteled the initaitive back from Danby. From then on, Henman was much more positive, working Danby side-to-side with the veteran falling into the walls and losing his balance on several occasions as he tried to keep pace with the youngster. After a particularly nasty fall on the service side forehand corner, Danby became more cautious with his movement, allowing Henman to finally seize full control of proceedings. He blitzed the last three games to keep his straight-sets record alive heading into the semi-finals.
The second quarter-final saw two-time defending champion Will Flynn take on main draw debutant Nick Jamieson. Jamieson took the game on from the start, playing his shots and sneaking the first two games from Flynn. But Flynn was just getting warmed up, playing methodical and measured tennis and reading the court exceptionally well. He made few unforced errors, with his shots growing in confidence as he won the next six games. One comical moment came early in the second set, when a force from Flynn hit the bottom ledge of the dedans and flew up in the air. Jamieson completely lost track of the ball, desperately looking around for it until it fell at his feet. However, by the end of the match, Jamieson was becoming increasingly exasperated that even his best shots were unable to break through Flynn. Flynn wrapped up the match quickly dropping just one further game in the second set, marching on to yet-another semi-final.
The third match of the day was between Tom Weaver and Vaughan Hamilton, with Hamilton owing a point every game. That Hamilton was giving a handicap did not make him any more conservative in his shot-making. With Weaver also hitting the cover off the ball at every opportunity, the crowd were treated to an intensity of play more usually seen on the doubles court. Hamilton was in control of proceedings from the start, leaking a handful of games due to the handicap but otherwise untroubled. Weaver’s retrieving game was simply not strong enough to deal with the variation in angle and length of Hamilton’s boasting, with Hamilton also securing a straight-sets victory.
The last of the quarter-finals was between Claire Fahey and 2022 winner Zak Eadle. Fahey was invested in the match from the very first ball, throwing out a fist-pump every time she won a point. She was backing herself on her cut-volley to beat Eadle’s forehand, quickly finding herself with several points for a 4/1 lead. Eadle’s response was to hit harder and harder, muscling his way back to 3-all instead. Fahey responded by launching herself at the ball as well, either on the force, the boast or the volley. She beat a yard chase with a force into the dedans to take the 4-all game and didn’t look back, winning the next game to take the set 6/4.
Eadle’s frustration threatened to boil over early in the second set after he was penalised the point for striking the net mid-shot. He channeled it into giving Fahey’s defensive volley a thorough work-out. He won three straight games from 1/2 to 4/2 while punishing anything loose on Fahey’s serve, setting and winning short chases repeatedly. Fahey battled back to 5/4, but lost the next game to see the set into a deciding game. Eadle struck two chases to begin the game, but Fahey’s forcing saw one chase beat and the other called chase off. She hit two chases of her own — the first one of which Eadle won after sending Fahey the wrong way, but she won the second as Eadle dumped the ball into the net. Eadle saved the first match point was a strike at the dedans, but Fahey caused just enough uncertainty around tambour on the final, set-deciding point to secure her third career semi-final.
Play concludes on Sunday, with the two semi-finals in the morning and the final in the early afternoon.
Match results:
10:00 AM: Luke Danby (Love) lost to Henry Henman (Owe 1/4 15) 5/6 1/6
12:00 PM: Will Flynn (Love) def Nick Jamieson (Rec 1/2 15) 6/2 6/1
2:00 PM: Tom Weaver (Love) def Vaughan Hamilton (Owe 15) 6/3 6/3
4:00 PM: Claire Fahey (Owe 1/4 15) def Zak Eadle (Love) 6/4 6/5
Order of play for Sunday:
10:00 AM: Will Flynn vs Claire Fahey
12:00 PM: Vaughan Hamilton vs Henry Henman
3:00 PM: TBC vs TBC
Great coverage of the tactical nuances here. The detail about Henman's wall-turning retrieval technique is fascinating becuse that's exactly the kind of positioning adjustment that seperates consistent retrievers from just fast movers. Also interesting how Flynn's methodical play completely shut down Jamieson's aggression once he got warmed up.