Kooyong’s men and women got off to the perfect start in the opening round of the Asia Pacific Tennis League season held at Kooyong on Sunday.
Both teams played the Waverley Warriors and came away with convincing five rubbers to one wins to keep themselves in the hunt for a finals spot.
The men got underway with Andrew Whittington asserting his influence on the encounter with a dominant 4/1 4/1 win against Aaron Leeder-Chard.
Daniel Byrnes showed he was still in blistering form with a 4/0 4/0 win against Sam Dowler while Andrew Coelho was also impressive in his 4/1 4/3 win against Daniel Feretti.
The captain, David Bidmeade, then made sure of the win on the day with a gutsy come from behind win against Trent Cobb 2/4 4/3 4/2 to ensure the clean sweep of the singles.
In the doubles, Andrew Whittington and up and comer Daniel Nolan lost to Leeder-Chard and Feretti 4/1 4/2 while Bidmeade and Mitch Burman played beautifully to defeat Dowler and Aaron Addison 4/0 4/2.
In the women’s match it was all Kooyong from the start of play as Ellen Perez used her power to great effect in her match with Dubravka Rakonjac to win 4/1 4/1.
Destanee Aiava also showed great focus to dominate her match with Noellada Ah San from start to finish to win 4/0 4/0 and show she will be a real threat against the top teams.
Annabelle Andrinopoulos and Kate Antosik kept the pressure on the Waverley team to setup a clean sweep of singles with Andrinopoulos defeating Jaide Collins 4/2 4/0 and Antosik winning 4/0 4/1 against Gabriela Sprague.
In the doubles, Perez and Aiava teamed up to dominate Rakonjac and Sprague 4/0 4/1 while Laura McNamara and Molly Polak went down to Collins and Ah San 4/2 4/1 to finish the day.
The atmosphere at the club was fantastic all day with the high calibre of tennis on show bringing plenty of spectators down to Kooyong on a great day for tennis.
Next weekend will see our men travel to Dingley on Friday night and Doveton on Sunday while the women will travel to Frankston on Friday night and MCC on Sunday.
