Blues Captain Jerry Ganendra and his partner James Shemilt took on Norfolk's Will Foster and Mike DigbyImran Marashli

Cambridge University Lawn Tennis Club, Fenner’s

A makeshift Cambridge University Lawn Tennis Club (CULTC) team succumbed to a 6–5 defeat to opponents from Norfolk on Sunday afternoon. Despite a strong 3–2 win in the doubles matches, a 4–2 loss in the singles ensured that it was the visitors who came away with the spoils after a hard-fought contest. Nonetheless, encouraging first-team performances from several of CULTC’s second-team Grasshoppers give optimism in the build-up to the annual Varsity matches over the next few weeks.

The first stage of the day’s play was six three-set singles matches played on the immaculate lawn at Fenner’s, where two nail-bitingly close matches swung the balance in Norfolk’s favour to give a 4–2 advantage. Michal Kaminski on Court One put on a fine display of aggressive tennis to defeat Tom Fisher in straight sets: his fearsome serving buttressed a dominant performance, with several aces complementing confident approach play at the net. Fisher fought commendably to take the first set to a tiebreaker. In the second set, however, Fisher’s resistance wilted faced with the Girtonian’s merciless groundstrokes, losing his serve early on and visibly deflated in his body language, while several double-backhanded winners down the line from Kaminski were particularly eye-catching. He never looked back and sealed a convincing 7–6 6–1 victory.

Adding to Cambridge’s points was Jack Long-Martinez on Court Four, who had to dig deep to triumph over the impressive debutant Marcus Meadows 5–7 7–6 6–1. Both men’s large statures made it a tussle of giants, big serves and hard hitting, as was demonstrated in the close first two sets. Wearing his cap backwards and executing unstoppable forehand winners, Meadows was arguably Norfolk’s answer to Juan Martín Del Potro. Over the long run, though, the Magdalenite’s consistent accuracy prevailed in the final set, where Meadows rued some costly double faults, lower first-serve percentages and Long-Martinez’s imperious presence at the net.

"Overall, we’re feeling good and strong. It’s the strongest squad we’ve had in a long time, so confidence is rising"

These two Cambridge victories, however, were overshadowed by four defeats. Dan Wynne defeated Martin Florea 6–3 6–4 in a closely contested match on Court Two, while the two Grasshoppers, Aleks Mardinian and Nikhil Sharma, also fell to three-set losses. Sharma suffered a dramatic reversal of fortunes on Court Six: after winning a tight first set 4–6, his opponent, Nick Stocker, proceeded to up his game and sweep aside the Grasshopper, taking the next two sets 6–0 6–1.

Mardinian’s three-set loss to John Wynne was even more agonising. He took the first set 6–3, featuring some graceful attacking play at the net and an outrageous return after Wynne got the rub of the green with a net cord. But unforced errors increasingly crept into the Cantabrigian’s game – to his visible and audible frustration –, with backhand slices finding the net more often that Wynne’s, despite showcasing some aesthetically pleasing winners. This allowed Wynne to prevail at key moments, especially at the end of several long rallies, and take the following two sets 6–3 6–4.

Over two hours long, the match between captain Jerry Ganendra and Will Foster was the most engaging of all six encounters, Foster superbly fighting his way to a 7–6 7–6 win to seal Norfolk’s advantage going into the doubles matches. The game’s pendulum swung to and fro endlessly throughout. Ganendra was confident and effective in employing serve-and-volley tactics and in aggressively advancing on Foster at the net, but Foster was also up to the challenge and pulled off a series of superb passing shots, the most important of which coming in the second-set tiebreaker as it found the line perfectly to thwart Ganendra.

This war of attrition continued as both players produced resilient defences and protracted rallies. But something had to separate the two baseline battlers eventually, and it proved to be the two tiebreakers that went Foster’s way, much to Cambridge’s dismay.

Cambridge clawed back the deficit to just one after the first round of doubles matches to rekindle their hopes. Kaminski and Long-Martinez were imperious, overwhelming Stocker and Dan Wynne 6–0 6–1 to quickly wrap up their match. The physically imposing duo’s serves, too hot to handle most of the time, were at the heart of the damage, with Kaminski adding to his already substantial collection of aces for the day. Ganendra and James Shemilt then enhanced Cambridge’s momentum with a convincing win against Foster and Mike Digby. The Cantab pairing complemented each other well, with plenty of serve-volley combinations and sumptuous winners down the line. Shemilt was particularly astute at the net. But Foster, beginning to fade physically, could not handle the intensity, every attempted lob smashed back past him by Shemilt to seal a 6–3 6–2 Cambridge win.

CULTC's Blues will compete against Oxford on July 1st and 2nd in the Lawn Tennis Varsity MatchCambridge University Lawn Tennis Club

However, Norfolk’s Fisher and Meadows were on top form to stymie Cambridge’s momentum by defeating Mardinian and Florea 6–4 6–3. Even exchanges of volleys and net plays eventually made way for Norfolk ascendancy as Fisher’s sharp work at the net complemented Meadows’s towering serves, and the game was fittingly sealed with a Meadows service game.

In round two, the Cantabs’ fate was sealed as they were unsuccessful in overturning the deficit. Ganendra and Florea battled hard against Meadows and Norfolk captain Nick Crawley, but once again Meadows’s serves, more often than not, were too hot to handle alongside some magnificent forehand winners. Gradually, the Norfolk pairing gained the upper hand over the Cambridge pair, who were playing their third game of the afternoon. More errors crept into their game, and a tight first set made way for a comfortable 7–5 6–2 Norfolk win.

All this meant that Kaminski and Long-Martinez’s win was a dead rubber, but they restored some pride with an epic three-set 6–7 6–4 7–6 victory over Fisher and John Wynne, the final tiebreaker being decided 10–8 after a marathon tussle. Fisher, by now sick of facing Kaminski’s serving, faced plenty of thunderbolts that peppered the T throughout. It was thus apposite that the final match was sealed on the Girtonian’s powerful service game.

In his post-match interview, Norfolk’s Nick Crawley reflected: “It’s our first fixture of the year, so it’s good to get off to a winning start. Getting four out of the six singles gave us a good platform to move forward in the doubles.” Looking forward, he added: “It’s about putting together a programme for the next few weeks. Doubles is a quicker game where you need that sharpness, so that will be something where we’ll be looking to focus on. In the singles, you can run around a little bit more and use your energy, but in doubles it’s happening so fast.”

Sitting down with Varsity after the end of play, CULTC captain Ganendra said: “It’s a tough result, but it motivates us during training to work harder. It’s highlighted some flaws and weaknesses in our game, which is the point of the matches, such that we can prepare for and win the important matches. Overall, there’s a lot of positives to take. Michal [Kaminski] and Jack [Long-Martinez] played some really solid doubles; it was a good fight from the team all around.”

With James Shemilt managing an elbow injury and Tom Morales unavailable as regular Blues, Cambridge were forced to cobble together a mixed side, but the Jesuan insisted that the picture was overwhelmingly a bright one ahead of the Blues Varsity matches in July: “Five out of the eight guys were injured, and four were unable to play today, which pushed a couple of the Grasshoppers up, and they got some good match practice. But we’re all on the same team. Sure, I’m captain of Blues, but we are one club, so it’s great to help out the Grasshoppers in any way that we can.


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“We knew it was going to be tough, especially with Joe [Koebele] getting injured. Last year they thrashed us, and a lot of today’s matches could’ve gone either way, so in general it’s positive. Yesterday we played against IC, and we beat them. They’re a group of anyone who’s represented GB – these are ex-Davis Cup players, ex-Prentice Cup players – so it was great to get the win there.

“Overall, we’re feeling good and strong. It’s the strongest squad we’ve had in a long time, so confidence is rising. We’ve still got work to do in the last three weeks [before Varsity] and to do as much preparation as possible, but we’re looking forward to it.”

 

CULTC: Michal Kaminski, Martin Florea, Jerry Ganendra (c), Jack Long-Martinez, Aleks Mardinian, Nikhil Sharma, James Shemilt

Norfolk: Tom Fisher, Dan Wynne, Will Foster, Marcus Meadows, Jonny Wynne, Nick Stocker, Nick Crawley (c), Mike Digby