By David Rowler
On Saturday 16 th August the home and away season concluded with 5 of our 9 teams progressing into finals which was not too bad. Of the 5 teams in finals there was genuine hope, based on strong home and away performances for contending for a premiership.
After finishing in 2 nd spot our Women’s Grade 2 team captained by Amelia Charlton, progressed
after a close win in their sectional semi-final. Then after receiving a bye in the Grade Quarter final
hosted an experienced and strong team from Oakleigh.
Our team included Darcy Basist, Sophie Grumley, Sera Karakassis, Kristen Antonopoulos,
together with Amelia. Unfortunately, our full team wasn’t available to play the semi-final which made
things even more difficult. However, they still put up a commendable result, including by Lily
Addison (from Grade 4) before going down 4 rubbers to 2. We wish Sera well in her tennis endeavours after she left Australia to play college tennis in the US.
For the 3rd straight year, our Men’s State Grade team were competing in finals after placing 4 th and
faced an away semi-final versus top placed Kooyong. After a very close and highly contested season, they did well to make the finals again and were confident of pushing Kooyong at their home venue. After the 2 doubles rubbers were squared 1 a piece, both in straight sets, the days result was always going to be a close affair. Unfortunately, as cruel as tennis can be, we narrowly lost 3 of the singles rubbers all in 3 rd set match-tiebreakers, whilst Brandon Laubser had a strong straight sets win over Amor Jasika at no.3. This gave the victory to Kooyong 4 rubbers, 5 sets, 55 games to 2-7-58. Well done to captain Lewis Miles and the team for another great season.
Pictured - Men’s State Grade – Michael Korobitsin, Nicholas Jovanovski, Lewis Miles, Michael Turlejski and Sam Dowler
Three further men’s teams all had outstanding seasons, which included the Grade 2 team led by Alex Savelli, who narrowly finished in top spot and were looking a strong prospect to progress well into the finals series. Unfortunately, due to several factors, player availability for their semi-final match was difficult, so we needed to rely on players from the Grade 3 and 4 teams below.
The team included Alex and Raphael Savelli, Kanvar Singh, Hridaan Jamwal and Vincent
Gazzini, with Filip Sormaz returning on his college break to play several key matches.
Towards the end of the season, Vincent left Australia on a tennis scholarship to play college tennis in the US. We wish him well in his tennis endeavours overseas and hope to have him return to play next year.
Our Grade 7 Sec 4 team entered the season all as first-time Pennant players, with several of them
coming up from junior teams. They performed extremely well and finished in 2 nd spot on their ladder. But they faced a strong team from Wellington and were defeated 2 rubbers to 4.
Well done on a great first season of Pennant. Blake Munro (C), Alistair Cairns, Health Kamphuis,
Ryan Tong, Binuk Abeyaratna and Adithya Shyam.
Pictured: Men’s Grade 7 – Health Kamphuis, Ryan Tong, Binuk Abeyaratna & Allistair Cairns
Finally, our Grade 4 Sec 3 team led by Brett Zeuschner entered the season with high hopes after returning with the same players as in 2024. They had a strong season finishing in 2nd spot. After winning their sectional final fairly closely, they breezed through the Quarter final and won through the Semi-final in convincing fashion.
This meant they entered the Grand Final, high in confidence and knowing who they were up against, having faced the Vermont South team twice during the season. Even though they had been defeated twice in close results, they still felt they were in with a great chance to win.
However, after losing the 2 doubles rubbers they faced an uphill battle. The result wasn’t over as Tyler Zeuschner performed strongly to defeat Daniel Grubb in the no.1 singles in a match tiebreaker. In the end, the Vermont team was too strong on the day and we went down 1- to
Well done to all team players Brett and Tyler Zeauschner, Glenn and Lucas Kellet, David Rowler and Andrew Semmens.
There were many outstanding performances by individual players which are all in line for our major awards, including:
Kanvar Singh, Raphael Savelli, Tyler Zeuschner, Ben Rowler and Darcy Basist who were all undefeated in singles and further players including Moncia Nguyen, Sophie Grumley, Amelia Charlton, Kristen Antonopoulos, Alistair Cairns, David Rowler, Glenn Kellett and Brett Zeuschner.
Women’s Grade 2 (Amelia Charlton) – 2nd – Grade Semi Final d by Oakleigh 4-9-59 to 2-3-35.
Women's Grade 4 (Monica Nguyen) - 5th
Men’s State Grade (Lewis Miles) – 4th – Semi Final d by Kooyong Lawn 4-5-55 to 2-7-58.
Men’s Grade 2 Sec 2 (Alex Savelli) – 1st – Sectional Semi Final d by Beaumaris 3-7-52 to 1-2-33
Men’s Grade 3 (Ben Rowler) – 5th
Men’s Grade 4 Sec 2 (Cal Kennedy Moore) – 8th
Men’s Grade 4 Sec 3 (Brett Zeuschner) – 2nd – Grand Final d by Vermont South 3-7-52 to 1-3-38.
Men’s Grade 7 Sec 2 (Peter Zelezny) – 6th
Men’s Grade 7 Sec 4 (Blake Munro) – 2nd – Sectional Semi Final d by Wellington 4-7-59 to 2-5-51.
Men’s Grade 4 – David Rowler, Glenn and Lucas Kellet, Tyler and Brett Zeuschner