Tennis: Vijay League

Draws highlight weekend matches

RESULTS of the two recent Vijay League matches have proved that the battle for this year's coveted crown won't be an easy affair. As was the case the weekend before when the match between Tennis Club 2000 and The Blues ended in a stalemate, there were no winners last weekend.

This shows that no teams are certain of a win until after having stepped on to the court and played their cards right.

Last Friday, El Nino drew 3-3 with Grand Slam and the following day, Spitfire and Aces separated on a 3-3 score.

After the four singles matches, El Nino were leading 3-1, but could not get a victory in one of the two doubles to secure full points.

El Nino's wins came through Maxwell Fock-Tave who prevailed over Kim Weltner 2-0 (7-6 6-3), Anthony Brioche who beat Stephen Ah-Moye 2-0 (6-1 6-2) and young Clivy Delpeche who dispatched veteran Julie Fayon 2-0 (6-2 7-5).

Grand Slam's only win in the singles was registered by former Seychelles coach Tim Horpinitch who had the better of Andre Hissen in straight sets – 6-1, 6-0.

Following their good performance in the singles, El Nino needed only one win out of the two doubles to wrap up the match, but they were in for a surprise as Grand Slam staged a mini-revival to deprive them of all three points.

The Grand Slam men's doubles pair of Stephen Ah-Moye and Darren Dine trounced the El Nino duo of Andre Hissen and Maxwell Fock-Tave 2-0 (6-3 6-1), while Horpinitch and Fayon made a destructive combination to defeat Anthony Brioche and Clivy Delpech 2-0 (6-2 7-5) in the mixed doubles.

Grand Slam were awarded two points for a higher number of games won in the match and El Nino one point.

Saturday's match was almost a carbon copy of Friday's.

Like El Nino, Spitfire led 3-1 after the singles matches but failed to win one of the two doubles, allowing Aces to draw level after victories on tie-break.

Spitfire's Steven Rideau-Mein gave his team the lead with a 2-0 (6-1 6-0) victory over Tex Selph. For his part, Selwyn Lespoir came from a set down to beat Ronny Ah-Shung 2-1 on a tie-break (7-1) after the two players had won a set apiece at 5-7 and 7-5.

Dean Gertrude followed in the footsteps of his two colleagues, defeating Bernard Mein on a tight 2-0 (7-6 7-5) score to give Spitfire a 3-0 lead before Aces' Fatim Kanté reduced the arrears to 3-1 with an easy 2-0 (6-0 6-2) win over Linda Samson in the only women's singles match.

Nobody would have bet a penny on Aces' chances at this point, but captain John Adam's team, who were missing their number one player Selwyn Knowles through injury, pulled themselves together to deny their opponents victory and all three points.

John Adam and Bernard Mein made sure of winning the men's doubles over the pair of Steven Rideau-Mein and Ronny Ah-Shung 2-1 (2-6 6-1 7-3) and on the same 2-1 (7-5 4-6 7-4) score, Fatim Kanté and Selwyn Lespoir defeated Marie-May Isnard and Vivian Vankiersblick in the mixed doubles.

Spitfire, with 59 games won, collected two points and league leaders Aces one to bring their tally to six.