Late rally not enough for Blues tennis stars
The Blues were narrowly defeated by 12 games to 9 in this year's Varsity match, held at the Queen's Club, London in July.
Cambridge just about held ascendancy in both the singles and doubles games to triumph, and leave Oxford dreaming of what might have been.
A disastrous start to the first day singles left the Blues with it all to do. Trailing 8-4 over-night, an improved second day display was not enough.
Number one Vendi Sundaram and number six Danny Bloomfield lost both of their games. Sundaram went down 6-3, 6-2 to the Cambridge number one, and 6-4, 6-4 to their number two, while Bloomfield twice narrowly lost, 7-5, 7-6 to the Cambridge number five, and 7-5, 6-4 against his number six counterpart.
Ivan Griffin was the only Oxford player to win both of his games, beating the Tabs' number five 6-3, 7-6, and recording a 7-6, 6-4 victory over their number six.
The other three Dark Blues experienced mixed fortunes, each winning one and losing one of their two games.
Joerg Peltzer was particularly impressive in defeating the Cambridge number four in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, and unlucky to go down 3-6, 6-4, 9-7 in a thrilling duel with his opposite number three.
Co-captain Brian Kend lost 6-3, 6-0 to the Tabs' number one, but triumphed 6-3, 7-6 against their number two.
Fellow captain Adeel Qalbani chalked up a 7-5, 6-7, 6-1 success against the Cambridge number four, after losing 6-7, 6-4, 8-6 against their number three.
In the doubles, the Cambridge first pair won all three of their games, and only Kend and Peltzer managed to overcome their second pair, winning 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.
But Oxford made light work of seeing off the challenge of the Cambridge third pair. Sundaram and Qalbani overwhelmed them 6-1, 6-0, Kend and Peltzer won 6-3, 6-1, and Bloomfield and Spike Willcocks triumphed 6-4, 6-2.
It proved too little too late however, and the defeat left co-captain Qalbani downhearted:
"Although we started off as slight underdogs, we had chances to win the match, but didn't take them.
"We played well to win the second day 5-4, but by then it was too late to salvage the match," he added.
5th Oct 2000