St Alban’s boy Oliver Tarvet again looked impressive on the Nottingham indoor courts at the National Winter Tour 9&U event over the weekend. Three wins in the early stages of the competition secured number one spot in group C to set up a quarter final with Batchwood team mate Andre Raath.
In a hard fought encounter Tarvet edged the match to move forward to the semi-finals where local boy William Nolan was waiting. However after the early exchanges it was the St Albans boy who looked more at home playing a high tempo game with few errors and managing to turn defence in to attack on Nolan’s big serves to take the tie 7-3 7-1.
The other semi-final produced some magnificent tennis with Sussex boy Toby Bloomfield toppling number 1 seed Avon’s James Vincent in a three set thriller 5-7 10-8 8-6.
In the final both boys tried to dominate their opponent with a mixture of pace and spin with honours just about even. Bloomfield hit two memorable angled crosscourt winners on his forehand side whilst Tarvet had the best of the net encounters. Perhaps the exertion of the semi-final for the Sussex boy had an affect too as it was Tarvet who narrowly nudged ahead to win in straight sets 7-4 7-5. Both Tarvet and Raath now have enough ranking points to secure their places in the Grade 1 Winter National Tour Finals to be held at the National Tennis Centre, Roehampton on 17th March.