Match Reports 7 to 13 May

Keswick and Braithwaite Tennis Club Report Week 7-13 May.

Shrugging off last week's defeat at Maryport, Keswick Men’s First Team, at full strength this week, reverted to form against a tough Lorton team in a hard hitting and tightly contested match on Tuesday evening. Rob Saxton and Dougal Atack were reunited as Keswick's first pairing, taking on Lorton's 2nd pair in the initial round. Lorton started out strongly, breaking Saxton's serve to take a 0-3 lead. However after this nervy start our players found their timing and won the next 6 games in a row to take the set 6-3. The second set began exactly the same as the first, with our lads again trailing 3-0 though unfortunately they couldn't mount the same kind of fight back and conceded the set 4-6.

Meanwhile Keswick second pair, Rob Moir and David Lake struggled against a powerful Lorton first pair losing the tightly contested first set narrowly 3-6. They remained upbeat and by tenaciously chasing down every ball forced the second set to a tie break though superior serving gained the Lorton pair the advantage and the set 5-6.

Keswick found themselves at a disadvantage, trailing 1-3 in sets at the halfway stage. Atack and Saxton knew they would have to up their game to have a chance of winning the match and they couldn't have wished for a better start against Lorton's first pair taking the first 4 games in a row with some aggressive volleys and acute angled shots. Lorton however fought back to take the set to a tiebreak at 5-5. A nervous decider ensued, with Keswick edging it 9-7 to win the first set 6-5. The second set was also tight and again went to a tie break. Rob Saxton, author and villain of last week's dismal report, was on top of his game this week and in sparkling form, powering the pair to a 7-4 win in the tie break to take the set 6-5.

Meanwhile Moir and Lake started their second round match fired up after loosing the previous set by such a tight margin. Lake's serving in particular was ferocious and accurate, causing Lorton serious problems and allowing the Keswick pair to breeze through the first set, taking it 6-1. However tennis is never predictable and it only takes a small lapse in concentration for a turn around, and that was the case in the second set when Lorton produced a gutsy fight back to take the set 6-4.

The final score was 4 sets all, though the games count gave Keswick victory 40-38. The team's tenacious performance paid off and pointed up the importance of contesting every game, even when all seems lost, as every game counts towards the final result

The Ladies’ Second Team was also in action this week in an away fixture against Whitehaven in Division 2 of the West Cumbria League. Timmea Vismathy captained the team, partnered by Jane Ma and ably supported by Anna Hollinshead and Janaki Spedding. The result was a decisive 1-7 victory for our ladies who, in their first season of league competition, remain undefeated.