Surrey rocked hard as brighton rain supreme

British tennis: we usually associate it with strawberries and cream, sunny skies, packed crowds and international stars. However, University tennis and Wimbledon are worlds apart. This week, SW19 was replaced by GU2, bringing driving rain and numbing cold. October 26^th saw the start of the University of Surrey women’s tennis season.

 Unfortunately, even this late start may have come a little too soon for the girls. Brighton University proved too strong, running out 10-2 (five games to one), crowning them victors at a wet Surrey Sports Park. However, this does not tell the whole story, Surrey were missing three of their top players and were unfortunate not to claim at least one more victory.

The game I covered featured Surrey’s Isabel Candy and Lorna Hopkins and the girls were ultimately made to pay for a poor start, leaving themselves too much to do. The weather conditions made play – especially serving – incredibly difficult, Isabel explaining “We just couldn’t get into the first set”. Unfortunately for the home side, Brighton adapted to the poor conditions better and were able to hit a number of winners from compromised positions from the off, a dominance which led to an apparent complacency. Hopkins and Candy looked shell-shocked after the early bombardment and their play suffered, hitting a string of errors. However, the girls soon found their rhythm where lesser players would have crumbled to defeat, particularly in the miserable conditions. After losing the first set by six games to two, the pair then fell five-two down in the second. With the writing apparently on the wall, Surrey staged an astonishing comeback, winning four games in a row.  Hopkins and Candy hit deeper, more aggressive ground strokes and coupled with consistent and impressive serving - forced a number of mistakes from the Brighton pair as the pressure rose.

 The tension became clear as the opposition’s moods turned from jovial to frustrated, berating themselves and turning against each other with each missed shot and each Surrey winner. Although Surrey missed their first opportunity to close out the second set, the girls were victorious in the subsequent tie-break, continuing their seemingly unstoppable momentum as they cruised through to win 7 points to 1. Isabel explained the resurgence, saying “In the second at 5-2 down we just didn’t want to give up so easily.”

 Unfortunately, the tidal wave of points soon hit the levees. Brighton once again showed the high quality tennis of the first set in winning the championship tie-break – the means by which games are decided when the game is tied after two sets – by ten points to six. So a disappointing defeat, but plenty of positives to take from it. Hopkins said of the game “It was disappointing to lose the doubles so narrowly, particularly after turning the second set on its head and frustrating the opposition who thought they had won easily at 5-2 up in the second set.”

 The pair can take plenty of heart from their performance and if they take this into their next game, they will surely register their first wins of the season sooner rather than later.

 Elsewhere in the women’s matches, Surrey succumbed to four further defeats; however, there was one ray of sunshine on a grey day as Anna Giles won her singles match 6-1, 7-5, an impressive result as Anna wasn’t even in the original squad, but stepped up due to the injury problems in the Surrey ranks.  The defeat leaves Surrey 4th in the South Eastern division with four games still to play.

 Next week, the girls play away to UCL, who were beaten in their opening game.