26 November 2014 | Tennis West

The South West ATL Conference exploded out of the blocks on Sunday, with the Men’s Mt Lawley Mavericks taking on the Hensman Park Heat and the women’s City Beach Slammers versing the Midland Mad Dogs. All teams were playing the new, exhilarating Fast4 format.

A lively Community Day at Hensman Park Tennis Club saw the Mavericks and Heat take to the court immediately following an energetic Zumba session that warmed-up the already excited crowd.

In heat number 1, 2014 WA Open Winner, Zach Itzstein (Hensman Heat), faced Clifford Marsland (Mt Lawley Mavericks), who has recently returned from playing in the USA.
It took a few games for Itzstein to become accustomed to the pace generated by Marsland, however Itzstein fought back well to win in a tie-break at 3-all. A few errors in the second set saw Marsland drop his serve, which was enough to give Itzstein the set 4-1.

On the neighbouring court, spectators were thrilled with the match between veteran Troy Hargreaves (Mt Lawley Mavericks) and WA young gun Scott Jones (16) (Hensman Heat). The youngster found Hargreaves’ serve hard to read and lost the first set 1-4. However, undeterred, Jones used his young legs and skillful passing shots to take the second set 4-3. Jones then used this momentum to wrap-up the third set 4-0.

In the meantime, Patrick Ganet (Mt Lawley Mavericks), a recent import from South Australia, played with his typical European flair to excite the crowd and take the match, 4-2, 4-3 against the Heat’s Brendan Malarkey. However the Maverick’s Joel Pleydell evened up the singles rubber tally to 2 all, by beating Jaron Stafford from the Heat.

In the doubles, Hensman Heat Coach, Mark Leuba, brought in James Stuttard and Ashby Farrell as his number one doubles pair, however they found the Marsland and Ganet pair too strong, losing 4-1, 4-1.

Jones and Stafford (Heat) put up a solid fight against Hargreaves and Brenton Bacon, losing both sets in tie-breaks. The matches were fast and the crowd were focused, making for one of the best doubles matches seen in WA for a long time. This sealed the overall first round win for the Mt Lawley Mavericks 4-9-43 to 2-4-34. Rhys MacDougall, captain of the Mavericks, was ecstatic with his team’s win in his first season of leadership.

Both teams travel to Adelaide on Friday for a triple header weekend of ATL against the South Australian Teams, The Knights, The Drive and The Titans.

Mens Results – Sunday 23 November 2014
Hensman Heat 2-4-34 def by. Mt Lawley Mavericks 4-9-43

Rubber 1:
Hensman Heat Zach Itzstein 4 4
Mt Lawley Mavericks Clifford Marsland 3 1

Rubber 2:
Hensman Heat Brendan Malarkey 2 3
Mt Lawley Mavericks Patrick Ganet 4 4

Rubber 3:
Hensman Heat Scott Jones 1 4 4
Mt Lawley Mavericks Troy Hargreaves 4 3 0

Rubber 4:
Hensman Heat Jason Stafford 1 3
Mt Lawley Mavericks Joel Pleydell 4 4

Rubber 5:
Hensman Heat Stuttard/Farrell 1 1
Mt Lawley Mavericks Marsland/ Ganet 4 4

Rubber 6:
Hensman Heat Jones/ Stafford 3 3
Mt Lawley Mavericks Hargreaves/Bacon 4 4
In a repeat of last year’s Final, the Women’s matches between the City Beach Slammers and Midland Mad Dogs took place on the grass at City Beach Tennis Club. Slammers Shona Lee, a valuable import to WA from New Zealand, took the court against 16 year old WA Open Champion Maddison Inglis (Mad Dogs), who last month used her wildcard in the Women’s International Pro Tour events to achieve great success and experience playing against international top 200 world ranked players on home soil. Inglis followed this up with a fantastic tour of Korea, reaching the Semi-finals and Quarter Finals in two tournaments. Despite such a hectic playing schedule, Inglis performed with no sign of fatigue, winning 4-1, 4-0 for the Mad Dogs.

Brittany Sheed (Slammers) lost only two games in her match against Kay-Leigh Nicholas (Mad Dogs), taking the rubber 4-1, 4-1, which left only one game the difference as the last singles matches commenced. Both these matches were closely fought over three sets, with Anja Dokic (Slammers) beating Teiwa Casey (Mad Dogs) 4-0, 3-4, 4-0; and Jessica Chaine taking the third set with an unreturnable serve in the sudden death tie-break point against Marisa Gianotti 4-3, 3-4, 3-4. Both girls had had match points during the set which caused much anxiety and excitement on the grassy bank amongst fans and team members.

Rubbers and sets were even as the doubles commenced. Slammers pairing Katy O’Shea and Shona Lee combined well to take their doubles match against Mad Dogs duo Teiwa Casey and Shannon Cox, 4-2, 4-2.

In the other doubles rubber Maddison Inglis and Kay-Leigh Nicholas had taken the first set 4-0 for the Mad Dogs against Anja Dokic and Brittany Sheed, only to lose the second in a tie-break. The deciding match tie-break saw many holding their breath until the Mad Dogs pair won 10-5. A light-hearted ending brought smiles as the last ball flew towards the referee, Ken Brown’s head, which was deflected with ease and earned a round of applause.

The Slammers won by a set in a spectacular exhibition of Fast4 Tennis 3-8-42 to 3-7-37. The girls look forward to hosting three South Australian teams – The Freighters, The Drive and The Titans at this weekend’s triple-header.
The Asia-Pacific Tennis League is now a firm favourite with WA’s elite players and has seen the State’s best combine into high-class teams that compete with their peers from other States, New Zealand and Asia. The winners of the South West Conference will travel to Melbourne during the Australian Open for the International Playoffs.

Women’s Results – Sunday 23 November 2014
City Beach Slammers 3-8-42 def. Midland Mad Dogs 3-7-37

Rubber 1:
City Beach Slammers Shona Lee 1 0
Midland Mad Dogs Maddison Inglis 4 4

Rubber 2:
City Beach Slammers Anja Dokic 4 3 4
Midland Mad Dogs Teiwa Casey 0 4 0

Rubber 3:
City Beach Slammers Brittany Sheed 4 4
Midland Mad Dogs Kay-Leigh Nicholas 1 1

Rubber 4:
City Beach Slammers Marisa Gianotti 4 3 3
Midland Mad Dogs Jessica Chaine 3 4 4

Rubber 5:
City Beach Slammers Dokic/Sheed 0 4 5
Midland Mad Dogs Inglis/Nicholas 4 3 10

Rubber 6:
City Beach Slammers O’Shea/Lee 4 4
Midland Mad Dogs Casey/Cox 2 2
For all of the Draws and Scores for the South West Conference of the ATL please click here

For further information on the Asia Pacific Tennis League, please visit the ATL Website.

For Media Enquiries
Loretta Hughes, Tennis West, Tournaments & Competitions Manager (08) 6462 8308
Elle Mazza, Tennis West, Marketing & Community Engagement Manager, (08) 6462 8303