Nottingham Whitewashed
The Blues serve up an easy victory over Nottinham at Iffley
The Blues tennis team breezed to an easy victory on Sunday, brushing aside a Nottingham University side who had come into the match off the back of a respectable third place finish in the BUSA Premier Division North. However, Oxford have proved this season that they pay little heed to reputations. From the moment James Spooner hit the first ball of the match Nottingham looked to be on the back foot.
Spooner immediately recorded Oxford’s first victory, putting them 1-0 up with an emphatic 6-1, 6-0 win against an opponent who simply could not cope with his devasting serve and forceful net rushing. Next to put an Oxford win on the board was Marco Hernandez, the team’s South American representative. Displaying his new found confidence on grass, he also recorded an almost disappointingly easy 6-1, 6-2 victory against the bludgening but ultimatley unoriginal Nottingham number two.
Things only got worse for the visitors as OULTC secretary and acting Oxford captain Lars Hoffman, complete with fetching red trainers, took to the court. Having gone 4-1 behind in the first set, Hoffman dug deep into his reserves to reverse the defecit against his awkward but effective Nottingham opponent, going on to eventually emerge with another impressive two set win - 7-6, 6-1.
Nottingham were certainly forced to rue this missed chance as their number six himself failed to take advantage of the unusually poor form of Matt Coupland. The golden opportunity to find a way back into the fixture was squandered as Coupland, exhibiting an iron will, successfully defended a string of set points in the first set before eventually capitalising 7-5, 6-2.
It was left to the Oxford number one, Phil Raddant, to guarantee the victory as, playing with a superior degree of consistency and intelligent variation, he edged out his arguably more powerful opponent 6-4, 6-4. The singles whitewash was completed by a weary looking Mark Carpenter, who nonetheless overcame his problems and ultimately proved too strong for the Nottingham number three.
Carpenter sealed his own win in straight sets to ensure that Oxford stormed through the singles without conceding even a single set to a dejected looking Nottingham. A similar story emerged in the doubles as Oxford got off to a lightening start. The Oxford number one pair of Raddant and Spooner completely overwhemled their opponents with some impressivly aggressive doubles play.
The 6-1, 6-0 destuction accurately reflected their performance as the Nottingham pair failed to put any real pressure upon Oxford at all. Things did not seem too different over on court three as Hernandez and Coupland broke early on in both sets and maintained their advantage without difficulty as they marched to a more than comfortable victory 6-3, 6-2.
Although Hoffman and Carpenter crawled out of the blocks in their match, and accordingly found themselves 4-1 down in the first set, they weren’t about to be the first Oxford pair to drop a set. Once again the home players surged back into contention as they upped their tennis and eventually came through to win 6-4, 6-1, completing their truly incredible total whitewash triumph. The match couldn’t have been much more straightforward for the constantly improving Blues squad.
Next weekend might be an altogether different proposition for Oxford as the Blues will take on a strong Roehampton team in good form, who should pose a much greater challenge than Nottingham. Varsity at the Queens Club in London is now less than a month away and the Blues’ impressive run of form bodes well for the second half of the tennis season.
9th Jun 2005