Chi pair Francis and Helen get off to a summer season flier
After the excitement of last week’s Solent Cup matches, Portsmouth’s tennis players started their summer league matches in earnest.
The only division one matches saw Chichester 1 and Ryde Lawn 1 both open their campaigns with 3-1 victories, over Lee 2 and Avenue 2 respectively.
Chichester’s top pair, Francis Heale and Helen Nelson-Smith, conceded just five games in the four sets they played.
Carrie Bateman and Kahren Barter also won two rubbers, although they were taken to three sets and needed a match tie-break to take the first one.
Fishbourne laid down a marker in division three with a 4-0 win over Warsash 3.
In the same division, Rowlands Castle shared the rubbers and sets with Stubbington but took the winning draw points on games countback, Caron Howe and Dawn Wears losing just two games in the final rubber.
CourtX 4 clocked up a second victory in successive weeks in men’s division three, 3-1 win over Avenue 3.
Andre Califano and Chris Corbett won both their rubbers, with Martin Jewell and Tim Fielder winning a final set tie-break to claim the third rubber.
The other men’s three matches saw 4-0 wins for Lee 3 (v Abshot) and Portsmouth Tennis Centre (v Ryde Mead).
And having lost their opening men’s four match, Warsash 3 got their season back on track with a 3-1 win over Alverstoke, helped by a double for Nigel Banton and Trevor Spence.
Ryde Lawn 3 rounded off the men’s results when they defeated visiting Lee 4 3-1.
There was significant action in the mixed divisions as well.
In division two, Ryde Mead travelled to Seacourt and recorded a 4-0 win which was much closer than the scoreline might suggest. Both Seacourt pairs took Mead’s second pair, Jitka Davy and Paul McCathie, to match tiebreaks.
In the same division, Ryde Lawn defeated visiting Warsash 2 3-1.
Match of the day was the mixed three encounter between Alverstoke and Southsea. The opening rubbers were shared, with the games countback also level at 21 each.
Alverstoke’s Jaz Davy and Joshua Thompson then raced to a 6-0, 6-4 win in their second rubber and when Tracey Lazenby and James Warren won five games in losing the first rubber to Southsea’s Dawn Dewilde and Andrii
Zharikov, the home team looked home and dry.
A few games later, though, Dewilde and Zharikov were 5-0 up and needing just one more game for an unlikely tie. But Warren held serve and that gave Alverstoke the winning draw points by one game.
Warsash and Swanmore 1 opened their midweek masters accounts against Avenue 1 and Chichester respectively, in what is certain to be a very competitive ladies’ division one.
Lee eased past Abshott in ladies’ two, while Chichester, Swanmore and Wellow all won their opening men’s matches, defeating Lee, CourtX and Fishbourne respectively.
Ventnor, making their debut in mixed division two, beat Ryde Lawn 3 4-0.