Tennis Club Championships Update

Despite temperatures requiring apparel uncommon in southwest Florida, two of the five Club Championship tennis events being contested were completed today. Jemin Martinsen repeated as Women’s All Aces Champion with a win 6-1, 7-5 win over Randy Thomas-Wohl, and Frank Kaplan continued his red hot play by winning the Men’s Court Crashers division in a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Tony Cupaiuolo.

Jemin overcame the wind and cold, a tender groin, and a second set push by Randy, who battled to a 5-4 lead before succumbing to Jemin’s tenacity, the elements and a strained glute. Fresh off his undefeated campaign that led to his claiming the Men’s Singles Ladder Group-B title, Frank remained patient and held it together despite Tony’s three-game run after Frank had taken a 5-0 lead. Chances are that Frank will be challenging for the Ball Basher Championship next season.

For those not familiar with the levels of play in our Club Championships, the highest level of play in the Club Championships is the All Aces division, and includes players who are rated 4.0 minus and above in local leagues and identified as such by the tennis staff.  At the second level of play are the Ball Bashers, who are rated 3.0 through 3.5; and the third level are the Court Crashers, who are rated 2.0 through 3.0.

In other Club Championship action, Women’s Ball Bashers Defending Champion, Martha Deleeuw, closed out Ann Wright 6-2, 6-2 in a quarterfinal match that began on Friday. She then went on to topple talented newcomer Angela Mitrisin in a frigid three-set semifinal struggle, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Martha will face another skilled first-year member, Judy Wilson in the final on Tuesday evening at 4pm. Judy eclipsed Joy Jones in her semifinal match, 6-1, 6-1 and should provide Martha with all the competition she could handle.

In today’s Men’s Ball Bashers semifinal, John Hess, who had been undefeated in the Men’s Singles Ladder before a tough loss to Frank Kaplan, took out Defending Champion Bill Wright in three sets to setup an interesting match-up with Maxwell Thompson. After cruising to a 6-0 first set, John came back from a 3-5-deficit to force a tiebreak in the second. Bill’s mental toughness got him through the tiebreak, but he couldn’t get past his lingering injuries and John’s terrific shot-making.

After posting a perfect score against the always-tough Tim Baldwin, Maxwell, along with Frank, has to be a contender for the title of “Most Improved Player” this season. Given John’s superb play since he’s returned from Wisconsin and Maxwell’s enhanced game, we can expect a match worth watching this coming Tuesday at 4pm.

The Men’s All Aces Champion, Geoff Negin, also faced a stiff challenge to his title defense. Geoff and Chuck Klucka took to the courts at 11am before the temperature had climbed to 40 degrees and while the wind chill was still in the low 30s, but it didn’t take very long for the tennis to heat up. After going down 2-6 to the champ, Chuck fought back to post a 6-3 second-set win. However; Geoff’s solid game and championship experience stood him in good stead, and he will have the opportunity to win back-to-back Club Championships when he faces Chip Graddy on Thursday evening at 6pm.

Chip faced Tim Jones in his All Aces semifinal match, and prevailed 6-1, 6-2. Tim must be given a tremendous amount of credit for coming out on a cold, windy morning to face a player with a tremendous height (at least 7 inches), and youth (at least 2.5 decades) advantage. Tim’s inscrutable expression belied the heavy odds against him, and he threw everything he had at Chip. However, Chip’s powerful, attacking game was a bit much for Tim, and it will be interesting to see how it matches up on Thursday against Geoff’s consistent, strategic style.

All in all, despite the diminished number of participants and spectators, and the uncooperative weather, the singles event has been entertaining and it promises to be even more so with the final matches yet to come. We expect better weather and better participation for the Doubles event of the Club Championships beginning February 5^th, so get your partner on the courts to practice, and if you aren’t playing, come on out to watch some fun competition.