Varsity match report: Women’s tennis

Yesterday saw the women’s tennis team suffer an unfortunate defeat, despite a concerted effort from the outset.

After last year’s 12-0 defeat, the team was determined to achieve a good result against the poly.

From left to right: Rebecca Smith, Umutoni Thuku-Benzinge, Nicola Clark, Jessica Broom

The day kicked off with a close-fought defeat for the second doubles pair, Umutoni Thuku-Benzinge and Jessica Broom, ending 2-6, 5-7 with some great tennis on display in the final set.

Perhaps the most regrettable moment was the failure of the first women’s pair – Rebecca Smith and Nicola Clark – to capitalise on a set point in the first set, which they lost 6-7. Nevertheless, they fought back with passion, taking the second set 6-3, only to lose out in the third set, which takes the form of a championship tie-break, 5-10.

Our doubles pairs in action

But everyone was feeling optimistic about the singles matches. Although the team had suffered two doubles defeats, they brushed themselves off and focused on the job in hand – 3 singles wins would claim a draw, 4 would result in a win.

It started off in similarly frustrating fashion with Jess losing her first set 6-7 after a very close 8-10 defeat in the tie break, and Umutoni losing 2-6 in her first set. Unfortunately, despite some model groundstrokes, Umutoni went on to lose her match 2-6, 2-6, but the team could still record a draw, which would have been a huge improvement on last year.

Jess did her bit to keep the dream alive by showing great determination to win her second set 6-3, and then the championship tie break 10-5, recording an important singles win.

Nicola Clark came up against a great player in her singles match at number 2, but she couldn’t manage to emulate Jess’ success, losing 3-6, 1-6. However, it was a good battle and Nicola produced some fantastic tennis.

The team was now playing for pride, and perhaps the highlight of the day came from the number 1 singles match in which Rebecca smashed her opponent of the court with some phenomenal tennis, recording a 6-0 set win. She didn’t let up as she went on to produce more of the same winning 6-0, 6-3 in a comfortable victory.

Although the team were frustrated at the overall result, which could have so easily gone the other way, they weren’t too downbeat. They showed DMU that they are capable of putting up a solid fight. With the team looking stronger than ever, we’re sure to see great things from them next year.