Sarratt Tennis Club Finals Day
Sunday 5th September 2021
This year’s Finals Day was blessed with the best weather we’ve seen for for a long time and we had a great turnout of members and non-members, young and old. Nick and Merriss Ratliff delivered another excellent barbeque, this year, finished off with floral decoration. Wimbledon, eat your heart out.
As for the tennis, we had an encouraging number of entries for the tournaments, including many new members – 18 for Men’s Singles, 14 for Men’s Doubles and 18 for Mixed Doubles (a record). Sadly we had a number of injury withdrawals which tested the rulebook but all possible matches were played to enable the finals to proceed. First up was the Men’s Singles Cup which saw Simon Ashby take on Paul Olney. It was a see-saw affair which either player could have won but Paul eventually prevailed 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 in the deciding Championship tie break.
The Men’s Plate trophy was a similarly hard fought tussle with Craig Bennett eventually prevailing over Rob Garvey 4-6, 6-1, 10-8. Mike Rogers and Paul Olney beat Craig Bennett and Nick Ratliff 6-4, 6-2 to win the Men’s Doubles Cup.
The final match was the Mixed Doubles Final which saw Nick Turner and Jackie Youell take on last year’s winners Mike Rogers and Jo Horwood. It was a tight and cagey affair with, as expected, a fair degree of aerial tennis but, despite facing three match points against them, Nick Turner and Jackie Youell ran out eventual winners 3-6, 6-2, 11-9. So three of the four finals went to deciding tie break deciders making 2021 our most exciting Finals Day ever.