JACK OLDFIELD pulled off six singles victories in two days at the weekend, winning comfortably at the Totally Tennis Club in Basingstoke on Saturday and at the Esporta Riverside Club in Watford on Sunday.
At the Basingstoke event his toughest challenge came in the semi-final against Hampshire’s Joshua Goodger.
Oldfield opened the match without dropping a game in the first set and was surprised when his opponent played the second set without error, forcing a second set tie-break.
The Sarnian held his nerve with some carefully constructed points and won the set 9-7 in the tie-break to book his place in the final.
The final proved to be less close, despite his opponent being a higher ranked player.
Oldfield (pictured) dominated with some well placed, powerful serving and won dropping only four games in the two sets.
Accompanied by his father, Oldfield then travelled to Watford for another event on Sunday, which included several county ranked players from Hertfordshire and Suffolk.
Unseeded, the Guernsey boy seemingly had a tough draw, meeting the No. 1 seed and higher-ranked Thomas Hewitt (Herts) in the first round.
Oldfield started the match by dropping the first game without winning a point, then settled into the contest and did not drop another game.
His aggressive returning and purposeful serving proved to be too much for his opponent and he was able to dictate most of the points.
That win set up a semi-final encounter with Antonio Capasso, a Suffolk county ranked player who was taken care of for the loss of only two games.
With confidence riding high after the previous day’s victories, Oldfield got into his stride quickly in the final and beat another Herts player, Jeremy Gschwendtner, for the loss of only one game.
Shot of the match for the Sarnian was a beautifully-timed backhand passing shot.
The grade four winter county tournaments (county level) are ‘linked’, which means the winner is guaranteed a place in the corresponding grade three (regional level) qualifying draw.
On this basis Oldfield now has a shot at the grade three regional event later in the month and is also in with a chance of playing in the Winter Grand Prix (national level) later this year.
The level of competition and number of players at U-12 level are certainly rising nationally and Oldfield knows he still has many areas of his game to better, but the weekend wins are deserved of a committed player mature beyond his 11 years.Grade four winter county events: Sarnian in with chance of reaching national Grand Prix
Article posted on 12th November, 2009 - 2.29pm
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