Starling stars in Swan Hill
Kyabram’s resident pro tennis player David Starling has returned from the Australian Senior Tennis Championships with a national title.
He won the 55 years doubles event and was runner-up in the singles competition.
The Australian Seniors Championships, which started on January 17 in Swan Hill, featured entrants from all over Australia.
The Free Press heard about Mr Starling’s win after an ‘anonymous’ phone call from his wife tipped us to his exploits.
“I haven’t made both finals before,” Mr Starling said.
“I’ve won a singles before and I won a couple of doubles. But to actually make two finals, I was pretty happy with that.”
Once Mr Starling hit the quarters and semis he was up against stiff competition. The veteran players battled it out for hours as the sun beat down, with matches between evenly skilled players going on for more than three hours.
But that didn’t stop the star form Ky from working his way through the ranks, winning his singles semi-final 6-2, 6-7, 6-4.
“I played a guy who’s the eighth seed from Queensland, and I got by him 6-4 in the third set,” Mr Starling said.
“And then the guys we beat in the doubles, in the semi-final, we beat them seven, six and a third.
“And that was about a three-hour match as well. So I had been on court on the Wednesday for about six and a half hours. So you can imagine that I was pretty spent.”
On the Thursday, Mr Starling pushed through the fatigue and fought for the title in the singles final. He was defeated by a skilled opponent after a two-hour battle.
But the defeat didn’t discourage Mr Starling, who dug deep and went on to win the doubles after another three-hour match.
“You're talking about good players. So a lot of tight games, a lot of tight points. But it's good competition. That's why we play,” he said.
There were some heart-stopping moments, Mr Starling said, when lady luck smiled on one side or the other.
“When you're playing occasionally, you might get a bad bounce on a big point. And you sort of think, ‘oh geez, this is just going to kill me’, and then all of a sudden you come up with a shot that you maybe didn't expect or they didn't expect that you get it back and you’ve been able to turn it into a winner,” he said.
“That’s what the match turns on. When you’re on a knife’s edge with evenly matched players, you need to be able to quickly respond to an opportunity to close it out.
“Then it also turns around where you get some good luck. And you think right, I've got to try and capitalise on this.
“From the semi-finals right through, every match you play, it’s swings and roundabouts. The momentum goes against you, and you've got to hang tough. And then when you can feel things changing and going your way, you've really got to try and make the most of it.
“I was fortunate that I probably made most of those opportunities to be able to make to finals and win the doubles.”
The Australian Tennis Seniors Championships are held annually and are hosted by the state organisations, generally on a rotational basis.
The championships are usually held over two weeks, with the teams event in the first week and the individual titles in the second.