by James Greenley
The Faulise Cup was played at Georgian Court University over the weekend of January 24th-26th. It had a 14-person draw that involved players with handicaps of 70 and above. There were representations from Aiken, Boston, Newport, Philadelphia, Tuxedo and Washington.
All the players played some fantastic tennis over the weekend. In the semifinals, both matches were the battle of Philadelphia vs Washington. Reeve Harde (Philadelphia) played some excellent tennis, knocking out No. 1 seed Mathew Ezersky (Tuxedo) in the quarters to meet Brock Anastasi (Washington), who defeated Andrew Brown (Philadelphia) 6-1 6-2. In the match between Reeve and Brock, Reeve took a 5-2 lead by playing fantastic tennis and hitting targets. Brock saved multiple set points and made his way back into the match to level it out at 5-5. Reeve took the set and kept the momentum going to win the second set 6-2 to advance to the final.
On the other side of the draw, another battle between Washington and Philadelphia was in the other semifinal. Jeff Norton (Washington) played Kelly Patrick (Philadelphia). Jeff got ahead and took a 4-0 lead. Kelly found the way back into the match and managed to level it out at 4-4. There were long rallies, and players were changing ends often with lots of chases being made. Jeff took a 5-4 lead. Kelly saved a set point and then took the following game to level the set 5-5. Jeff took the next game to win the set. Jeff took advantage of his railroad for the second set and kept the momentum going to win the second set 6-2. This was a similar outcome for the previous semifinal as both scores were the same.
In the final, Reeve played Jeff, who dominated with volleying and his serving and retrieved everything. Jeff couldn’t find a way back into the match. Reeve took the first set 6-2. In the second set, everything worked for Reeve, and Jeff couldn’t find a way back into the match. Reeve closed out the match to win the Faulise Cup 6-2 6-1.
Matthew Ezersky (Tuxedo) defeated David Grier (Washington) 10-5 in the consolation draw. Matthew took a 9-1 lead and was dominating the match. David slowly came back into the match, getting points that Matthew couldn’t close out to win the match due to unforced errors. In the end, Matthew found a way to close the match and win the consolation.
