The Racquet and Tennis Club had the pleasure of once again hosting the Below Zero this fall. This year boasted the strongest draw to date, with professionals James Stout and Tim Chisholm taking part for the first time. With several of the best amateurs in the world participating, this was sure to be a highly contested event.
The Qualifier began on the 2nd of October, with the home-grown talents of John Beam and Christopher Holter progressing through to the Main Draw.
The following day saw the beginning of the tournament and the start of the much anticipated, highly competitive (for some more than others), Pro-Am. The Pro-Am was split into two groups with the favorites—and past winners—Bob Diamond and Christopher Oberbeck proving the bookies correct and regaining their respective titles with help from Freddie Bristowe and Josh Dodgson.
The seeded players generally progressed seamlessly, with the exception of a hard-fought match between #6 seed Tony Hollins and unseeded Pete Dickinson. The slightly biased home-pro crowd almost coaxed an early upset, but Tony managed to remain calm and clinch a close third set victory.
The Quarterfinals saw two particularly interesting matches. The first, Tim Chisholm vs Adrian Kemp, featured two contrasting styles engaging in a game of mental chess, with each player trying to lure the other into their style of play. Tim played the role of the aggressor and Adrian the modern-day Chris Ronaldson. Both styles proved effective; however, a few hard-hit targets were enough to take Tim over the line. In the second entertaining Quarterfinal, Josh Dodgson got off to a flying start and won the first set quite comfortably against Freddie Bristowe. Freddie, unwilling to go down without a fight, used his youthful athleticism to take the second set in an equally assertive manner. This continued to 3-0 in the third set, when Josh, in a last-ditch effort to swing things back in his favor, began to play more daringly and attempted to end points earlier. Fortunately for him, this was enough to race to a 5/3 lead and eventually win the final set 6/4.
The Semi-Finals of the event witnessed one unfortunate outcome, with Barney Tanfield sustaining an injury after coming out all guns blazing and winning the first set vs Tim Chisholm. The other Semi-Final consisted of two Racquet and Tennis professionals going head-to-head, Josh Dodgson vs James Stout. The biggest upset of the tournament took place within this match, when Josh managed to progress to the final.
The Final was extremely well attended, and the match did not disappoint. The current Tuxedo Club professional faced up against the former Tuxedo professional. Several people in the crowd had seen this match (in practice), many times before.
Josh, like his last two matches, got off to a flying start and bested Tim in the first set with accurate target hitting and member support. Tim, knowing Josh’s game very well, began to implement a different set of tactics in the second set and started serving an almost unreturnable high serve. With these changes, Tim was able to regain control of the match and dictate the majority of points, winning the second set 6/3. Josh was unwilling to give up without a fight, but with Tim now controlling the service end he was able to break down Josh’s evident gameplan. This proved too much for Josh and Tim went on to win the final set and took the Below Zero title.
It must be said that this event would not be possible if not for the generous patronage of the Racquet and Tennis Club membership, Pro-Am participants, the United States Court Tennis Association and the United States Court Tennis Preservation Foundation. Special thanks also go out to the Below Zero Committee Chairman, Ted Goneos and the R&TC employees for putting on a great event. We look forward to hosting another successful event next year.
