National League Kick Off
September 7th, 2013
New England vs. Tuxedo/Philadelphia
Venue – The Tuxedo Club
New England travels to Tuxedo and emerges with 5/2 victory over Tuxedo/Philadelphia.
A bit of a Tuxedo reunion this past weekend in Tuxedo as former Tuxedo Senior Professional Tony Hollins and former Summer Professional Camden Rivière (and frequent training partner with Chisholm) arrived during the week to practice and visit.
New Tuxedo Professional Josh Dodgson and Hollins took the court first at ~5 pm. Hollins looked much more comfortable to start the match playing very steady tennis while Dodgson showed a bit of nerves and Hollins took the first set 6/3. Dodgson settled down at the start of the second, putting a little more pressure on Hollins while cutting down on the errors and won the second set 6/2. And due to a format change to National League….the third set started at 3/3. Both players dug their teeth in for the quick race to the finish, with Dodgson winning a few important points to emerge with a 6/4 victory.
The second singles match saw current World #1 Camden Rivière take on his doubles partner, world #5, friend, and potential world championship eliminator opponent Tim Chisholm. Based on the 6/0 6/2 shellacking Rivière gave Chisholm the author wonders if the two players are still friends and if Chisholm might be better off hanging up the bats before the Eliminators begin in 2014….
The match comes down to the doubles….
But before reporting on the doubles….The Tuxedo Club must be applauded as there was a large and knowledgeable crowd in attendance throughout the evening. Even more exciting to see in terms of the crowd was the number of kids in attendance.
The ball was flying around furiously from the first point of the doubles….Chisholm in his usual style of restrained tennis and Rivière covering all areas of the court and some portions of his opponents…Games were exchanged until 5/5 at which point Tuxedo nipped ahead to a 7/5 lead and what looked like victory for the home team. As Rivière supporters know all too well, until the last point is played and hands are shook…Rivière continues to fight and this evening proved to be the same as New England fought off a handful of match points….with Hollins particularly strong on the volley…to emerge with an 8/7 victory.
Thanks to all who supported this event and to the players for putting on such a great display of tennis.
