4 September 2023 | Tennis Victoria

The Tennis Victoria State Grade 2023 season came to a thrilling conclusion on Saturday 2 September.

A large crowd arrived at Royal South Yarra Lawn Tennis Club for a day of riveting State Grade tennis action. It was also fantastic to see hundreds of viewers tuning into our live stream of the Grand Final day via My Sports Live.

➡ Watch the live stream replay of the State Grade Grand Final here.

Men’s:

Backed by their parochial supporters, Fawkner claimed the first three rubbers and led 7-1 on sets to seal victory against Grace Park Hawthorn and claim a deserved victory. On the live streamed court, State Grade MVP Chanchai Sookton-Eng and Ken Cavrak fought off a spirited second set challenge from Jackson Varney and Frank Moser to win 6-1 6-4 and put Fawkner 1-0 up. On the other court, an unfortunate injury to Grace Park’s Adam Hubble meant that Grace Park had to retire in that rubber. Hubble and Daniel Ferretti were leading John Giakoumakis and Stephen Hoh 5-3 at the time.

In the singles, Sookton-Eng didn’t have it all his own way, but bounced back from last week’s singles loss to record a 7-6 6-3 triumph against Ferretti and put Fawkner 3-0 up. That meant that Marlino Pascual needed just a single set to confirm victory for Fawkner. Hubble’s replacement, Tom Zaleski, took the first set 6-3, but a 7-5 second set win to Pascual confirmed Fawkner’s status as State Grade Champions for 2023.

Women’s:

In a David vs Goliath battle on the Women’s side, Kooyong came up trumps against Harkaway, winning the first four rubbers to seal the result. Grace Darcy and Ava Beck wasted no time in their doubles rubber, prevailing 6-0 6-4 against Eva Crawford and Kate Smith to give Kooyong the ideal start. On the live streamed court, the established doubles pairing of Madison Ashley and Kirra Bond-Scott were fantastic early, and threatened to take the first set away from Kooyong. However, the class from Isabella Crossman and Gabrielle Villegas proved too much in the end, recording a 7-5 6-2 triumph.

The number 1 singles between Villegas and Smith was a match of wild momentum swings. Villegas looked strong and powerful in a 6-0 opening set, before Smith began to work her way back into the match in the second. Despite a late scare, Smith took the second 6-4 to send the match to a deciding match tiebreak. From here, the momentum shifted again, with Villegas winning 9 straight points on the way to winning the tiebreak 10-3. Eliza Dunbar and Christina Dodaj’s match also went the distance, with Dunbar recording a 3-6 6-1 10-3 win to seal the victory for Kooyong.

Grade 1:

Royal South Yarra also hosted the Grade 1 Men’s and Women’s Grand Finals on Saturday afternoon. Kooyong made it 2 from 2 in the Women’s, also prevailing 4-2 against Heatherdale. Meanwhile, in the Men’s it was one of the closest Grade 1 Grand Finals in recent memory, with Narre Warren North prevailing in the final match tiebreak 11-9 to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against Beaumaris.

Results:

(Score shown by rubbers, then sets, then games)

State Grade Men – Fawkner 3-7-48 def. Grace Park Hawthorn 0-1-30

State Grade Women – Kooyong 4-7-50 def. Harkaway 0-2-24

Grade 1 Men – Narre Warren Nth 3-7-54 def. Beaumaris Lawn 3-5-49

Grade 1 Women – Heatherdale 2-4-47 def by Kooyong 4-8-62