The University of Nottingham (UoN) Tennis Team thrashed the Nottingham Trent University (NTU) Tennis Team by 14 points to 6, giving UoN their 5th Super Wednesday point and an unassailable 5-0 lead.
In an exciting, fast-paced format, games would be played to the best of three sets, with the first to four in each set and the third set being decided by a tie-break to seven.
With four courts being played simultaneously, there would be four men’s singles, four women’s singles, two men’s doubles and two women’s doubles each worth 1 point. The afternoon would end with four mixed doubles games worth 2 points each. This gave a total of 20 points that were up for grabs, meaning that either side required 11 points to win the overall varsity fixture.
The UoN women’s singles dominated from the off. Nikita Dawda set the tone for the day with a 4-0, 4-0 win in the first of the matches. Convincing wins on the three other courts left UoN 4-0 up after the first leg of the fixture.
Trent were not going to let that get them down in the men’s and women’s doubles matches, however. The doubles’ were a much tighter affair as UoN struggled to keep the ball in the court.
In a performance as skilful as the women’s before them, the first three men’s singles matches ended with UoN wins
However, Dan Youhana and Max Chesher won for the boys, while Lottie Jameson and Mikaela D’souza played superbly for the girls. It ended with two wins a piece for UoN and Trent, leaving the scores at 6-2 in favour of UoN going into the men’s singles.
In a performance as skilful as the women’s before them, the first three matches ended with UoN wins, putting us up 9-2 overall. The standout match of the day was between UoN’s Archie Dent and and his NTU opponent; Archie lost the first set but fought back in the second set, tying it at 3-3 to force a tie-break to 5 to win the set.
This put UoN 10-2 overall, and with 8 points left to be won a draw was the worst possible outcome
The tie-break went to 4-4 with Archie on serve. After asking if the point was now sudden death, he produced a stunning ace to win the breaker and the set.
Everybody in the Tennis Centre had gathered around Court One to watch the action unfold, and the UoN lads ran on court to celebrate as Archie won the final point. This put UoN 10-2 overall, and with 8 points left to be won a draw was the worst possible outcome.
UoN now only needed to win one of four mixed double matches to win the fixture. By this stage, UoN had known that Canoe Polo, Fencing, and Water Polo had already won their fixtures. This point counted not only for Tennis but the entire Super Wednesday.
It did not take long – Danny Hudson and Rajani Murthy won comfortably (4-1, 4-0) to give UoN an unassailable lead. A win for George Sillet/Hannah Worsley and close defeats for Alex Terry/Lara Graney and Andy Prikazchikov/Georgina Denton gave a final score for the day of 14-6.
Trent deserve a lot of credit for their performance; with a smaller team some of their players competed in three out of the four matches. However, it wasn’t #MeantToBe and UoN Tennis smashed the court to win the fixture and the day to put UoN up 2-1 in the overall Varsity series.
Words by Rachel Lewis and Alex Burge
Images: Alexandra Farzad (IMPACT Images Team)
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