PATRICK Reincke’s footprint on the Broken Hill tennis scene knows no bounds after he added another remarkable chapter at the Broken Hill Tennis Association’s championships.
Broken Hill’s Spring tennis competitions were put on hiatus over the past week as the association held its annual titles.
Over the course of a week and a bit, new champions were crowned, titles were defended and more great tennis matches entered local players’ memories to be recited for years to come.
It all kicked off last Monday with the mixed doubles being taken out by Ken Caldwell and Julie Sandy.
On the Wednesday night, both the women’s doubles and men’s B grade doubles took place.
In the women’s, Leonie Channing and Cori Gaynor were the best duo of the three that put their names down.
Channing and Gaynor won their opening double 9-2 over Beth White and Heidi Rhodes, before downing the runners-up in Julie Sandy and Molly Molloy.
While that was unfolding, eight pairings squared off in the B grade men’s doubles causing two round-robin groups to be formed.
Tom and Shaun Kennedy rocketed through Group A, dropping just two games across three matches to reach the final.
It was a lot closer in Group B, Brady Wauchope and Joe Worgan looking the goods early, winning their first two matches in dominant fashion.
However, their run was halted as they faced Jack Woods and Ashley Mason in their final round, who had also won their previous two matches.
Woods and Mason got the job done 6-4 and reached the last game of the night.
The Kennedys jumped out of the blocks like a horse on too much caffeine, leading 5-0 in the blink of an eye.
Woods and Mason managed wrestle back control of the match, winning the next three games to put the Kennedys under the pump.
But Shaun and Tom became steely-eyed missile men and held on to win 6-3 and clench the championship.
The following night was time for the Open A doubles.
Six doubles teams made up the fixture with Nathan Crabb and Matt Handberg the No.1 seeds, having won the event eight times non-consecutively.
Patrick Reincke and Evan Boylan were seeded second.
Crabb and Handberg were mercurial and stingy across their sets.
The defending champs dropped just the four games over four matches, two victories were 7-0 scorelines.
Reincke and Boylan were in a similar boat but did face stiff resistance when they had to overcome the decisive Dale Dodimead and the sucky Adam Hellyer 7-5.
Despite that defeat, Dodimead and Hellyer played one of the matches of the night, winning a tight tiebreak tussle over Corey and Dale Pascoe.
But there was one more tiebreaker left in the frivolities, and that came in the final round of the round robin.
Both undefeated, Crabb and Handberg along with Reincke and Boylan took to the court to decide the winner.
This was a to-and-fro affair with the 2023 champions breaking away to an early 3-1 lead.
Reincke and Boylan rallied back to tie it all up and force their own advantage with a lead of 6-4, with Boylan to serve for the match.
Somehow, facing sizzling kahuna serves, Crabb and Handberg broke back to get back in the game and Handberg served true to tie the match at 6-6 and force a tiebreaker.
It could have gone either way, but in the end, it was Reincke and Boylan prevailing 7-4 in the breaker.
For Reincke, it was a return to the Open A doubles winner circle, having won with Ross Casey back in 2018.
For Boylan, it was his first championship victory and witnesses say he was beaming with excitement.
With all doubles done, Monday night beckoned with the call of the singles games.
Singles tennis, where reliance on teammates goes away and you have no one to face other than your opponent.
In trying conditions, which included stifling humidity, the city’s best did their best to secure victory and survive the night.
The B grade singles, made up of four players, saw a four-peat unfold with Brady Wauchope the one who could not be stopped.
Over his three sets, Wauchope only gave away four games as he clenched another championship.
Steve Gleeson was the runner-up, winning his remaining two matches, which included a hard-fought 9-7 tiebreaker win over Joe Worgan.
As for the Open A contest, the rivalry between Nathan Crabb and Patrick Reincke added another chapter, as the pair duked it out for the Robert Schofield trophy.
Six players contested the Open A contest in a round-robin fixture that would see them play five sets, first to 7 games.
Crabb got his quest for back-to-back trophies underway with a 7-3 win over his doubles teammate in Matt Handberg.
Meanwhile, Reincke dispatched Hellyer 7-1.
The last opening single was a corker between Corey Pascoe and Josh Niarros with both players exchanging topspin pleasantries like it was going out of fashion.
Niarros was just that little bit better, winning 7-5.
As twilight became night time, the top two seeds in Crabb and Reincke continued to lay claim on the 2024 crown.
For Reincke, he downed Handberg 7-3, Niarros 7-1 and Pascoe also 7-1.
For Crabb, his next wins were over Pascoe 7-2, Niarros 7-2 and Hellyer in a tight 7-5 battle.
Similar to the Open A doubles, the final round was going to decide the winner.
Having played with and against each other since 2015, Crabb and Reincke went back and forth like two chess masters, the score locked at 3-3 after tense hitting.
A break in play for Reincke to replace a racquet due to a broken string saw the game momentum shift.
The fiery red head broke away, winning consecutive games, closing Crabb out of a comeback chance and winning 7-3.
Reincke is now a six-time Open A singles champion.
