British Tennis - Lawn Tennis Association

Terry Oakes, Team Captain of Wilton Tennis Club’s Women's team describes a successful season for his team that draws a close to the Team Tennis 2011 league season…

Last season Wilton Women's team missed out on promotion to the National South East division by the narrowest of rubber margins. We had several changes in personnel this season and were alarmed to see how many higher rated players had been nominated by some of the clubs in our South East South Regional Division.

Our first match sent us for a day by the seaside to play West Worthing. The match result was good but sadly our Club Coach Kim Freebairn injured her knee very early on in her match and has been unable to play (or coach) since. The day concluded with Anastasia and Lisa enjoying a windswept stroll along the pier!

We then moved on to our two toughest matches. Cumberland fielded Rebecca Llewellyn (rated 1.1) who inflicted on Anastasia her only defeat of the season. Anastasia and Christa's finest doubles performance in an unbeaten season followed with a narrow victory over opponents rated 1.1 and 3.1. The set lost in this match was the solitary one lost by Christa in her six singles and six doubles victories during the season.

Christa Gecheva who has had an excellent season for Wilton’s promotion winning team

We then played local rivals Westside all of whose players were rated above ours. Christa, Lisa and Michaela all gained from playing regular competition matches and won convincingly while Anastasia battled to defeat Laura Peterzan in three high quality sets.

Our last match was due on 12th June against St George's Hill who had beaten us last year. The weather intervened so the match was delayed for a week. St George's were not able to field their strongest team whilst we brought in Nikki Withers for her first team debut.  The second doubles rubber was close but otherwise Wilton finished the season with a convincing victory.

Anastasia Dvornikova who had a great record at number 1 for Wilton this season

All season we were greatly helped by having a regular squad of six including doubles specialists Susanna and Rochelle who won all of their matches without dropping a set.

We're delighted to be promoted to the National Open tier of AEGON Team Tennis where we note that we're likely to be the equal smallest club. Only Bridgnorth and Roundhill also have only four courts. As such our performance in only losing two rubbers out of thirty (the most clear cut percentage in any National or Regional division) in the traditionally strong South East region is one of which the team should be very proud.

View the rubber results from Wilton’s win in their final league match

(top left to right) Susana Hernandez, Lisa Losseva, Rochelle van der Walt
(seated left to right) Michaela Knespl, Anastasia Dvornikova, Christa Gecheva

Final Result: Wilton Tennis Club beat St. George’s Hill 12-0