It was a difficult couple of days for the University of East London’s Tennis Team at the BUCS Tennis Super Weekend as both men’s and women’s first teams were convincingly beaten by the Durham and Stirling universities.
The event took place across two days at the prestigious National Tennis Centre in Roehampton with six universities from the top National Division playing a match, consisting of six rubbers, on both days.
The East London outfit are the two newly promoted sides in the divisions following title winning seasons from both men’s and women’s first teams prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. UEL as the underdogs put up a good fight but were beaten by the subsequent score lines:
Men’s 1st 0-6 Durham
Men’s 1st 0-6 Stirling
Women’s 1st 1-5 Durham
Women’s 1st 1-5 Stirling
A Hard Step-Up
UEL are the underdogs in the league having much-changed side from the team that gained promotion in the 2019/20 season. This is because three of the four members of that team have now graduated from university and are no longer eligible for BUCS matches. As a result, Paolo Col and Emmanuel Oni have made the step up to the first team and Steven Zahui is injured therefore, second team player, Harry Worrad, played at the Super Weekend.
There are similar issues for the girls as an injury crisis has hit the first team with Iman Garshong out with a problem which means she can’t serve, and the experienced Naomi Jackson was also out for the weekend. This meant that Zeniece Charles-Hall and Vanessa Vasilache both made first team debuts at the big event.
Terrific Tennis
The level of tennis on show at Roehampton was incredible with the likes of Leeds Beckett’s Clay Crawford, who has world ranking points, as does Durham’s Andrew Watson, who has a career high world ranking of 535, to name just some of the top players on court.
Professional player, Katie Swan, who is currently the world number 286 having lost in the opening round of Wimbledon to American star Madison Keys, was in attendance to support the athletes.
A New Standard
At a recent training session after the busy weekend, Rising East spoke to a number of the East London team including Oni. He is an exceptional player but was beaten heavily, he spoke about the increase in standard in the ‘Super Six League’, “It’s the precision and accuracy with every ball. They (the opposition) are so consistent, every shot comes back with good quality – depth, topspin and power. Even if they hit a slow shot it’ll hit the line.”
He continued: “it’s normally bounce then hit, bounce then hit – but instead it’s just bang hit, bang hit! You have no time. It’s a different level” he exclaimed.
Worrad said, “You’re just so tired after like four games” he joked. “You think you’ve hit a winner then they get it back with accuracy and depth.”
The team’s coach, David Gaves, who has previously coached the Turkish Davis Cup side, said, “I can’t criticise the effort or attitude from any of us, the other teams were just better.”
Moral Dilemma
There was controversy in a women’s doubles match as UEL took on Durham. In a tiebreak, with UEL on set point, the umpire called a Durham serve out which was clearly in. This would have handed UEL the set however, sportingly Soumeya Anane and Charles-Hall said to the umpire the ball was in and it was an ace. They overruled the umpires call handing Durham the point at a vital stage in the match. The East London duo went on to lose the match but were praised for their fair play.
Continuing to Improve
Despite the lose, Gaves believes on another day the women’s team could have defeated Stirling, “I think our girls would’ve beaten them if we had our full team out. Vanessa tried everything but just came up short considering she had never played at that level she did well.”
He went onto say, “they’ll be better players because of it (playing in the top division) they’re learning and it’s more beneficial than demolishing someone 6-0 6-0 in a lower league.”
In the training session, Gaves set up a number of drills to improve accuracy, consistency and precision, the three things that he believes were the key difference makers between East London and the rest at the Super Weekend.
