Exeter's University Tennis Coordinator Angela Law gives us the lowdown on the first event of the new University Tennis Tour.
Last weekend was the inaugural event of the new University Tennis Tour; a series of Grade 3 tournaments specifically for students. We were very excited to be hosting the first of these events as they are an excellent way for students to play a good standard competition, and get some ratings wins and ranking points!
The weekend started off well with the higher ranked players all progressing through round one. There was a slight scare for Exeter 2nd team player Alex Knox, as he fended off one of Exeter's non-BUCS team, Michael Rosenberger, 10-7 in a match tie break.
The quarter and semi-finals also went with the seeds, with Ashtey Pauls getting the better of Armand Baboian 6-4 6-2 in one semi, and James Atkinson just edging past Andy Norton 10-7 in a match tie break in the other. In the final the top seed, Atkinson, prevailed over Pauls winning 6-3 6-4.
After the match Atkinson said, "I really enjoyed the weekend. I played well and there were a lot of good matches going on. It was a great chance for university players like myself to play ratings and rankings matches over a weekend."
Luckily we had plenty of court time over the weekend, so everyone in the draw of 16 was guaranteed at least 4 matches as we ran a compass draw. This was an ideal way for all players to play a number of competitive ratings matches, especially those who aren't in BUCS teams so don't have the opportunity to compete at that level quite as often.
The consolation draw was a mixture of BUCS team players and also some of Exeter's non-BUCS squad players – this draw gave the non-BUCS guys an excellent chance to prove their worth against the BUCS players and really put themselves in contention for BUCS selection in up and coming matches or for next season.
There were a couple of very close quarter final matches with Luke Rivoire edging out Matt Bell 10-7 in a match tie-break and EUTC Club Captain Brendan Gilson scraping past Rosenberger in his second marathon of the day, 5-7 6-2 13-11! The semis were also a tight affair with Alex Jones prevailing 7-5 6-2 over Luke Rivoire, and non-BUCS player Elliot Clark knocking out Gilson 7-5 7-6(5).
It was great from an Exeter perspective to have a BUCS player against a non-BUCS player in the consolation draw final; it shows the strength of depth in our squads and how eager players on the fringe of the team are to prove themselves against others in tournaments like this. Jones went on to take the final on Sunday afternoon, beating Clark 6-1 6-3.
All in all the weekend was a great experience, we had good feedback from all players; they love that there's now a series of tournaments aimed specifically at them where they can work on their ratings and rankings.
Nico Robinson, who finished 6th overall in the tournament, from Exeter University said, "It's great that Grade 3 tournaments are being made more accessible for students as they provide a good level of competition and also a chance to improve ratings – I got the win I needed for my rating to go up this weekend, so it was well worth it!"
View the final results here.
Find out more about the University Tennis Tour.
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