Rusty Eadle scrapes past impressive Aley at Tambour Tour Leamington
Medlow beats Yorston in see-sawing match; favourites Williams and Wood-Casey breeze to semi finals
The two-day Tambour Tour Leamington kicked off on Saturday with four first round matches at one of the tour’s favourite venues.
The event kicked off with the first round match between James Medlow and Benedict Yorston. Both players took a while to adjust to the court, Medlow with the squareness of the main wall and Yorston with the speed of the floor. Medlow took the advantage through the first set, finding his targets more easily and keeping the pressure on Yorston. Medlow took the first set 6/1 and looked to be in cruise control.
However, Yorston would not roll over easily, turning the momentum his way at the start of the second set as he was more able to dig balls out of the corners and keep it in play. Medlow tried to hit his way out of trouble with mixed success at targeting the dedans. Yorston established an early lead in the set, and powered through until it was 1 set all.
The change of set caused yet another change of momentum. Medlow was able to control his shots much better, especially from the hazard end, putting more pressure on the retrieval of Yorston. Medlow out-served him too, his railroads kicking back in with more success than Yorston’s piques. Medlow ran out the winner comfortably in the third set.
Next saw the home court head professional Lewis Williams take on Cambridge’s Mark Hobbs. Williams demonstrated his home court knowledge well, reading the ball off the tricky back wall of both ends. He picked off Hobbs’s loose serves and consistently struck them into the bottom of the dedans, with Hobbs shaking his head in his hands as he expected to be able to play them off the back wall. Williams completed a comfortable victory in less than 40 minutes to move on to the semi final.
The third match saw Melbourne’s John Woods-Casey make his Tambour Tour debut against former Leamington apprentice professional Nick Jamieson, now at Radley. It was the first stop for Woods-Casey on his 2 month long exchange to the UK, based out of the Royal Tennis Court. Woods-Casey demonstrated his brand of concise, consistent tennis, hitting clean cut volleys and rarely putting a ball on the penthouse. In Jamieson he found an opponent willing to mix up his tactics to try and find an edge. However, it would ultimately be to no avail as Woods-Casey wrapped up a comfortable victory.
The last match of the day was between Chris Aley, the assistant pro at Leamington, and Zak Eadle. Eadle on paper was the favourite, about 8 points better than Aley on handicap. But Aley benefited from recent match experience and regular practice at the Leamington court. The two players could hardly be separated through the first set, as both had moments of excellence punctuated by runs of unforced errors. The set went to a deciding game, but Eadle had the serve. Aley’s returns were not potent enough as Eadle knocked up a brace of grilles, enough to take the set.
Aley took an early lead in the second set, as Eadle settled in to a rhythm of forcing any ball that was within his hitting zone. Aley was reading the main wall well enough to pick off Eadle’s missed attempts. Aley’s quick play never gave Eadle a chance to assess his situation as the set slipped further and further away from him. From 1-5 down, Eadle dispensed with the pretence of nudging the ball into corners all together, sending every ball hard down the middle of the court and earned enough points from Aley’s racket errors to swing the momentum back his way.
Aley managed to briefly stem the bleeding as he took the second set, but Eadle carried the momentum into the third and stretching out a 4-0 lead in a passage of play that ultimately proved decisive for the result. Eadle slowly tired with his forcing strategy, with Aley able to fight his way back into the match point by point. The run of play was all with the local professional, but the mountain was slightly too big for him to climb. Eadle took the last two games and thence the match on the back of relentless targeting of the winning gallery, playing into the left-handedness of his opponent.
Play resumes on Sunday with the two semi finals in the morning followed by the final in the afternoon. All matches are being streamed live on YouTube via T&RA Media.
Match results
11:30 am: James Medlow def Benedict Yorston 6/1 2/6 6/1.
1:00 pm: Lewis Williams def Mark Hobbs 6/0 6/1
2:30 pm: Nick Jamieson lost to John Woods-Casey 2/6 2/6
4:00 pm: Zak Eadle def Chris Aley 6/5 3/6 6/3
Order of play for Sunday (all times GMT):
10:30 am (Semi final): James Medlow vs Lewis Williams
12:00 noon (Semi final): John Woods-Casey vs Zak Eadle
2:30 pm (Final): TBC vs TBC