Top tennis teams pull away

The Central Wimmera Tennis Association pennant top four is beginning to separate itself from the chasing pack after a weekend of blowout results.

Ladder leader St Michaels, second-placed Horsham Lawn Thompson, third-rung Kalkee and numberfour side Drung South each did it comfortably against respective opponents Brimpaen, Natimuk, Horsham Lawn Gillespie and Central Park.

The Saints whitewashed Brimpaen in a 12 sets, 96 games to zero sets, 29 games drubbing.

Rarely did Brimpaen threaten to win a rubber, with Courtney and

Ebony Dunn’s 8-6 doubles loss to Kassie Peachy and Angela Nitschke and Courtney’s singles loss to Peachey by the same margin the closest the team got to its opponent.

The Saints have dropped only two sets in their past three outings and host Horsham Lawn Thompson in a top-of-the-table clash on Saturday.

A St Michaels triumph would stamp the team as an unbackable premiership favourite as the season hits its halfway mark.

Lawn Thompson is itself coming off a strong win against Natimuk, 9-81 to 3-42.

The Lawn side powered through four of the first five rubbers, winning them to either love or one game, but that trend was reversed in Gemma Walker’s singles encounter with Natimuk’s Beth Sudholz.

Sudholz powered to an 8-2 win and later teamed up with Cheryl Sudholz to win an 8-7 doubles tiebreak against Walker and Cherie Wood.

She made it three from three when she partnered with Kyra Clarke to defeat Walker and Tahlia Thompson 8-0.

Natimuk will host Kalkee at the weekend, with the Kees showing their premiership-winning form from last season in an 11-95 to 1-44 annhilation of Horsham Lawn Gillespie.

The Kees were painfully close to a clean sweep, with their only rubber loss coming in an 8-7 tiebreak when

Lawn’s Shane Gillespie and Jason Farlow defeated Jeff and Jordan Friberg.

Other than that it was mostly oneway traffic apart from Lawn’s Courtney Ramsay nearly defeating Kalkee emergency Emily Polack in a singles tiebreaker.

Lawn Gillespie is now six points behind fourth-placed Drung South, the team it will face this weekend.

The Drungsters downed Central Park 9-82 to 3-57 on Saturday thanks to the dominance of their women.

The Drung South women combined to win five of a possible six rubbers, with the only loss coming when Parker Josie Kerr defeated Tanya Sleep 8-0.