On another pleasant day for tennis, two out of six Maccabi teams won.

Below is section 9 team (club legend Paul Kovacs, Sebastian Raboy, Jack Stock, Jacob Nathan and Ben Pollak).

BRTA Summer Pennant

Section 3 Maccabi 5-7-58 defeated BLTC 1-2-34

Assaf Drori 8-6
Asaf Nagar 8-3
Jonny Henquin 6-8
Marty Schwarz 8-4
Assaf Drori/ Asaf Nagar 6-2 6-2
Jonny Henquin/ Marty Schwarz 6-1 4-6 6-2

Started with doubles, A&A were virtually unstoppable with some spectacular net play. J&M started strong winning the first set but their opponents came back strong to win the second. They continued playing solid tennis to win in three sets.

In the singles, AD had a very tough match during the hottest part of the day. He came through strong, defeating a very solid opponent. AN displayed another strong performance, winning without too many troubles. M played a solid opponent but the long match tired his opponent and didn’t miss too much to come out on top. J played a great game but unfortunately couldn’t get atop of his opponent who was too consistent.

 

- Marty Schwarz 

Section 5 Maccabi 3-4-47 defeated by Kings Park 3-5-49

Ilay Givoni 8-0
Ryan Sharp 7-8
Luka Federman 2-8
Arvid Kreimer 8-5
Ilay Givoni/ Ryan Sharp 4-6 1-6
Luka Federman/ Arvid Kreimer 6-4 4-6 6-7

Ilay and Ryan had a good first doubles set with some opportunities but unfortunately they lost it 6-4 and with the following momentum lost the second 6-1. Luka and Arvid played very good points against some very solid opponents to win in a close super. Ilay's opponent withdrew from the match, Ryan played an incredible match against an incredible player. Being up 7-4 with 10 match points, Ryan's opponent played perfect points each time saving them one by one forcing a tiebreak loss. Luka's opponent was way too solid hitting every winner out of nowhere Luka did well to stay in it but unfortunately his opponent was on. Arvid played an amazing match against a consistent player. Despite being exhausted near the end managed to win 8-5.

- Ilay Givoni

Section 6 Maccabi 4-6-61 defeated Overport 2-3-49

Dean Steinberg 8-1
Lior Rauchberger 3-8
Darion Pohl 8-2
Charlie Landau 8-7
Dean Steinberg/ Charlie Landau 4-6 6-1 7-6
Lior Rauchberger/ Darion Pohl 6-4 4-6 6-7

Section 7 Maccabi 2-3-35 defeated by Langwarrin 4-6-52

Steve Bendel 4-8
Russell Golden 1-8
Paul Francis 1-8
Blake Golden 8-4
Steve Bendel/ Paul Francis 3-6 6-0 7-6
Errol Dorfan/ Blake Golden 2-6 3-6

The usual highlights. Steven Bendel in the doubles and Blake Golden getting three singles win in a row ( I thought the gruelling fitness program I sent him after the last match would work ). Nice to see Russel Golden return after a long term injury .

Against strong opposition this was a decent result noting that the team has never failed to get at least two rubbers all season in a consistent year just shaded for depth at this level.

- Adam Needleman

Section 8 Maccabi 0-0-27 defeated by Hawthorn 6-8-56

David Zulman 6-8
Joel Rabinov 3-8
Stephen Gorenstein 7-8
Daniel Brami 3-8
David Zulman/ Joel Rabinov 2-6 1-6
Stephen Gorenstein/ Daniel Brami 1-6 4-6

At Hawthorn on the en tout cas, we started with doubles.

David Zulman (kindly filling in) and Joel played doubles together for the first time against tall big servers. The first set was about missed opportunities. Down 0-3, Joel held serve to love (and would be the only time to hold serve throughout the day). Down 2-5 (with the 5 lost games all going to 30all or deuce), the day went downhill from there, broken for 2-6. Got the early break for 1-0, before momentum went away, losing 6 in a row for 1-6.

Stephen and Daniel started slowly for 1-6. They then stepped it up for 3-1, before being overrun for 4-6.

David playing a guy who whacks the ball hard (and over 7 UTR), found his way down 0-3. David then changed tactics (resorting to slice forehands which stayed low) and found himself in a fight. Unfortunately went down 7-9.

Stephen had chances early in a serve a thon, however unable to break. Stephen's opponent capitalised and stepped it up on his backhand, to take a 7-5 lead. Stephen got the break back, but unfortunately couldn't win in the tiebreaker.

Daniel took on a very good emergency player at number four, pushing multiple games to deuce and holding the score at 3all. His opponent’s consistency proved the difference with Dan missing a lot of chances finishing 8–3. Despite the result, Dan was pleased with his level against a stronger player.

Joel played better than in prior matches. However at 2-1, 40-0, came the deflating game that Joel never recovered from, with the opponent changing tactics and being more aggressive. Joel got broken and then having 0-30 yet losing 4 striaght points. Breaks of serve kept ensueing for 5-3, however the opponent stepped up for a 8-3 win.

Overall: Our season has completely unravelled at the halfway stage of the season(dejavu for Joel from last winter). Though we have our moments: Stephen has improved against someone he struggled against last time. As for me, did all the hardwork to get breaks (3 out of 4 games is enough against anyone). However not holding serve isn't acceptable, especially when missing regulation shots. Can't be winning matches playing defense majority of the time (and then proceeding to lose all points when being aggressive).

- Joel Rabinov

Section 9 Maccabi 2-3-33 defeated by BLTC 4-5-51

Ben Pollak 2-8
Sebastian Raboy 2-8
Jack Stock 5-8
Paul Kovacs 8-7
Sebastian Raboy/ Jacob Nathan 2-6 1-6
Ben Pollak/ Stephen Kleid 7-6 6-2

Tough day today against top team: I really wanted to try and play everyone today as it was our last match of the season before finals.

We started with doubles, Seb and Jacob gutsed it out but unfortunately played against a very good opposition, going down in straight sets.

Ben and Steven played great, was up 5-3 in the first set and then down 6-5 but managed to really clutch the tiebreak and not getting broken in the tiebreak. They continued to get better in the second set, their consistent serving the real difference in the match.

In singles: Ben and Seb unfortunately tried hard but couldn’t get any real momentum going down 7-2 each. Jack was fantastic and out on a show but just couldn’t get back even after going down early, losing 8-5. 
But, what more can I say about our hero Paul, got lost on the way to the courts and went all over Beaumaris but once he arrived he was awesome. A fantastic tiebreak win but especially showing his class winning the tiebreak 7-2.

Overall, we’ll probably play this same team in a few week and we know we can win but it definitely won’t be easy and looking forward to the challenge come finals

- Ben Pollak