Phillip Boyle

Thanks to Phillip for offering this write up. While Phil is an Australian he has lived and worked in the U.S. and played on the tournament scene in the U.S. as well. Alois

It was a bumper weekend at Geelong, with three tournaments held (Senior, Junior & Vets) over 2 days.

Senior/Junior

In the Mens Open there were a few upsets but when the dust cleared William Henzell stamped his authority with a strong win. Dave Powell’s hard training showed it is paying dividends - making the final, defeating Robert Frank & Kyle Davis along the way. Earlier Jesse Bricknell upset Simon Gerada with a fighting 5-set win and Dillon Cathcart accounted for Lory Bisiach. In the Women’s Singles Jian Fang Lay trumped Miao Miao in a tight seven-setter. Michael Belot is making the O30 his own and again triumphed then added the Restricted Singles for good measure.
Dave Powell backed up his Mens Open form in the U21 and U18 singles by taking both titles. Heming Hu was thwarted by Dave in both the U21 and U18 finals having won the Boys U15 and then knocking out Trent Carter in the U21 semi. Melissa Tapper showed strong form to defeat Ivy Wang in the U21 women’s final. Lily Phan took out the U15 and U18 girls singles, again signaling her ongoing improvement. Stephen Phan won the U13 Boys title.
The Division 1 singles saw usual suspects Justin Huang and Dillon Cathcart fight our the final with Justin prevailing. Nathan van Hees notched up another victory for the juniors by winning the Division 2 singles.

Veterans

Brian Berry served notice that his mixed 2008 form (after all he only won the Vic Open O40 and several O50 titles!) was gone by taking both the O40 and O50 Men’s singles without dropping a set in either. Brian accounted for arch rival Phil Boyle in the O40s and Phil Websdale in the O50s. Jenny Langridge displayed great courage to overcome a serious knee injury and a determined opponent to fight back from 2 sets down and defeat Roma Chambers in the Womens O40 final. B P Huynh was part of two winning doubles combinations, partnering with new Victorian Geoff Tran in the Mens O40 Doubles and doubles specialist Vicki Carruthers in the O40 Mixed. Vicki also took the O50 Womens Singles (did we say doubles specialist?) with an upset win over Roma Chambers, and partnered with Debbie Wilson & Roma to win both the O40 and O50 doubles. Mick Wright continued on his merry way, helping himself to the O60 and O65 singles, stopping Michael Ede’s giant-killing run in the 60s. Former Kiwi Averil Roberts won the Womens O60 singles. Pam Tait and Roy Cintolo celebrated joining the ranks of the O70s with wins in the singles – and combined to take the Mixed Doubles. Geoff Nesbitt took out the Mens O75 title.

All in all a great effort by Mark Kilinski and the Geelong crew, on the back of the Masters Games only 2 weeks before.