After a long week of play in the heat of Adelaide the young Tasmanian Pizzey Cup campaign is in the books.
Buoyed by a great start, day one saw Tasmania take the honors in a hard fought battle with Australian Capital Territory 13 matches to 5. Launceston natives Victoria Geale and Gabrielle Carswell took home wins in both singles and doubles in what was a great days play. Day two saw the confident Tasmanian’s take on the eventual winner and defending champion New South Wales. After hanging with their more experienced opponents early Tasmania was unable to consistently match the power and precision of their NSW counterparts. Seniors Brad Dunn and Vanessa Dobson pushed their opponents all the way through some outstanding tennis.
Day three of the Pizzey Cup was against Western Australia with the mercury reaching 31 degrees. After coming within two points of a match Burnie residents Elliot Johnstone and Martyn Icke fell just short in doubles losing 9-7. Eventually WA proved to much with a comfortable win in the end. Senior captain Ross Marzetti forced his opponent into retirement leading by 3-0 in the second set. Erin Fazackerley and Laura Briant played some stout doubles, dropping a nail biter. After the heat of day three, day four welcomed cross Tasman neighbors Victoria. From the outset the Tasmania squad came ready to play giving the Victorian’s all they could handle early. Eventually the Victorian’s flexed their muscle and claimed a comfortable win. In the highlight of the day young gun Daniel Groom claimed a massive scalp by defeating Ryan Draffin in three sets. Elliot Johnstone almost shocked the tournament with an early set lead over top seeded Aaron Addison. From there Addison took over winning in three tight sets.
Day five brought a new challenge in Queensland. After gaining a vital point in the doubles through Brad Dunn and Martyn Icke Tasmania was unable to win the important points dropping a handful of tight matches. Young team member Tom Cornish had a stellar day in singles coming within a few points of the match and Laura Briant played her heart out in a tight loss to Uma Nayar. The final days play on day six was against South Australia. Again the doubles play set the tone with Martyn Icke and Brad Dunn claiming another huge doubles scalp over the South Australians. In the singles action Kate Bohmer impressed many with her clinical straight sets dispatch over Katherine Rebes.
After such a large workload of tennis over the week the young Tasmanian’s had a chance to reflect on what they had achieved. Senior captain Ross Marzetti said “This week was invaluable for the development of the team. We showed, in patches, that we can match it with anyone but consistently performing at a high level is needed. This week was a great experience and I was really proud of how the squad performed both on and off the court”. Mirroring these comments captain Gabrielle Carswell said “It was great week of high quality tennis in sunny Adelaide. Although the scores didn’t match the closeness we need to work harder on the bigger points. The girls team is so young with so many positives coming out of such a grueling week. We will be back bigger and stronger in 2014”.
A big congratulations to the team and a big thank you to Phoebe Davis for taking the group away. See you all soon!
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