Maccabi's Section 3 men's team secured an impressive Premiership on Saturday, defeating BLTC 4 matches to 1. Eight Maccabi players qualified to represent the team and contributed to the team reaching the finals, giving captain Jordan Jaffe a selection headache. This included: Assaf Drori, Asaf Nagar, Joel Fredman, Jordan Jaffe (captain), Jonny Henquin, Marty Schwarz, Daniel Sneider and Robert Minc. Cheered on by a vocal contingent of Maccabi supporters, the Maccabi top team, led by coaches Drori and Nagar, recorded a comprehensive win in the season decider.
Three other Maccabi teams qualified for the semi-finals but were unsuccessful in their semi finals.
Section 3 Maccabi Premiers L to R: Jordan Jaffe (captain), Jonny Henquin, Marty Schwarz, Joel Fredman, Asaf Nagar, Assaf Drori. Not pictured: Robert Minc, Daniel Sneider.
Section 3 Grand Final Maccabi TC 4-6-49 def Beaumaris LTC 1-1-22
Assaf Drori 8-3
Asaf Nagar 8-1
Jordan Jaffe 5-8
Jonny Henquin 8-4
Assaf Drori/Asaf Nagar 6-2 2-1
Joel Fredman/Marty Schwarz 6-0 6-3
After last season’s GF final loss by only 1 set, we were determined more than ever to go one better. Starting off with the singles, Asaf N and Jordan were the first two on the court. Asaf started in superb fashion, playing consistent and aggressive tennis at the same time, not giving his opponent anything. In the end, Asaf was way too good for his opponent, beating him 8-1.
Jordan, on the other hand, came up against the 16 YO that gave him his only loss for the season, and a player who hadn’t lost one match all season. In an extremely tight battle, Jordan found himself at 5-5, after overcoming a 4-5 (0-40) deficit. Unfortunately for Jordan, his opponent’s level of consistency and ability to never miss, was too difficult for Jordan to combat, going down 8-5.
Jonny was next onto the court, playing against a very solid and consistent older player, who makes you earn every point. Although this didn’t bother Jonny at all, Jonny was playing incredible, playing aggressive and free flowing tennis to ease his way to a 8-4 win.
Assaf D was the last one in the singles, coming up against arguably the next best player in Section 3 (outside of our top two). However, watching this, you wouldn’t haven’t known, with Assaf playing some of the best tennis I think most of us have ever seen at this level, taking a 5-0 lead and mentally destroying his opponent to the point where during the match, he told his team that he wanted to pull out of the doubles. From there, Assaf’s opponent clawed back to 5-2, but a big hold at 6-2 led Assaf to take the match 8-3.
Now it was time for doubles, with two extremely strong pairings and only needing one win, we were confident but in this sport you never know what can happen.
Joel and Marty were the first two on the court, and I think I speak for everyone watching, that when I put these two together, we had high expectations but these two were just on another level. After taking the first set 6-0 in just under 25 minutes, it was clear nothing was stopping Joel and Marty. After leading 4-1 in the 2nd set, it was all smiles and extremely enjoyable points for the pair, as they eased their way to a 6-3 win and officially crowned us at premiers!
At this time, both Assaf and Asaf were up 6-2 2-1, and even though we knew we were likely to win that one too, as the day was done, that match ultimately came to an end.
Overall, with probably the highest quality team I’ve ever captained, it was incredible to bring home another premiership back to Maccabi. Now we are all able to celebrate with our Bayside sponsored wine glasses, and premiership flag which is officially hung up in the clubhouse!
- Jordan Jaffe