Maccabi's Grade 5 Pennant team roared into the next round of finals, not dropping a set! A great achievement by the guys!

Click here to view the schedule and results from the first weekend of the 2025 Victorian Jewish Tennis Championships (Seniors): https://play.tennis.com.au/maccabitennisclub/News/01819e8c-05e4-4944-b939-d0956361db43.

L to R: Grade 5 team members Asaf Nagar, Gilad Nagar, Marty Schwarz, Jordan Jaffe, Jonny Henquin and Assaf Drori. Not pictured: Daniel Sneider, Steven Kleytman.

Tennis Victoria Winter Pennant

Grade 5 Maccabi 3-7-48 def Grace Park 0-0-24

Assaf Drori/Gilad Nagar 6-2 6-3
Jordan Jaffe/Jonny Henquin 6-3 6-3
Asaf Nagar 7-6 6-1
Jonny Henquin 6-2 5-4
 

After yet again another long week of arguing with tennis Victoria - yes it was much longer emails than last week, it was finally ruled that the Asaf’s were not able to play together. However, we were not going to let that ruin our spirit and got the next best option in Gilad to step in for the doubles.

Gilad played in the no.1 doubles with Assaf on an early arvo that had every bit of Melbourne weather. Sun, cloud, wind, rain, and repeat - it was truly an adventure. Although that was not going to stop the next Gilad or Assaf as they were playing phenomenal doubles and worked excellently together with their left/right combination to take control of the match and win their doubles in straight sets.

On the other court, Jordan and Jonny set out to continue their good form from the weekend before. Playing against a tricky team who had 1 player much stronger than the other and that weaker player basically playing half the game from the baseline, it took Jordan and Jonny quite some time to work out the best strategy. However, as they do best, as the match went on, both were able to play more attacking and take the match also in straight sets.

In singles, Asaf played against a very solid and tough opponent. The first set was extremely close, with lots of long rallies and insane line winners from the opponent. However, Asaf managed to win the big points in the tiebreak to win the 1st set. Now, this is where Asaf’s opponent became very interesting. The 2nd set included a 7 min toilet break from the opponent, multiple breaks during the game to check his foot for an injury, sitting down not at change at ends and also a ball smashed 50m down the road - very entertaining stuff for those watching. Clearly Asaf got to his opponents head and that just motivated Asaf more, leading towards a convincing 6-1 2nd set win. 

In the other singles, Jonny stepped onto the court. Jonny played a very consistent player who went neck-to-neck with Jonny on many rallies. Jonny was exceptional and won the first set 6-2. Whilst, in the 2nd, with the scores being 5-4 to Jonny and only one game from the win after a 45 minute set, the day had ended as Asaf had won his match and in one of ESPNs top 5 greatest sportsmanship moments, Jonny’s opponent decided to end the match and not finish the set so close to the end - safe to say Jonny was not thrilled whatsoever.

However, at that stage we were all very excited as we had guaranteed victory for the day without needing to play the other 2 singles which would have resulted in a 7pm finish. 

As we head into the grade semi finals this weekend we are all very excited to see how far this team can go in the hopes of bringing a premiership back to Maccabi. And in other news, as we say goodbye to Marty who is heading off to Italy - yes we are all very jealous. We are very excited that we will now have Daniel to step in for us for singles next week, and hopefully that will inspire us to go one more and make it to the granny the week after

- Jordan Jaffe