Harry, Masa triumph in 2018 Grasscourt Championships

TENNIS Victoria’s 2018 Victorian Grasscourt Championships at Geelong Lawn reached its stunning conclusion with the finals matches on the last day of 2018, seeing victories to Tasmanian Harry Bourchier and Melbourne player Masa Jovanovic.

The prestigious Platinum level event, boasting $15,000 in prizemoney and a strong field of competitors, from talented locals and people from Melbourne, interstate and overseas. began with qualifying matches on Thursday, December 27th.

With 82 men and 40 ladies competing, it saw, arguably, some of the best tennis played locally in many a long day and with great weather too, save a (thankfully) short storm late on the Sunday morning.

Finals matches had the two top seeds in both mens and ladies fighting it out, with Harry Bourchier just a little too solid in accounting for top seed and former Australian Open junior champion Brydan Klein in two thrilling sets of exceptionally high standard tennis.

The ladies final saw top seed Masa Jovanovic pitted against good friend, doubles partner and defending champion, Geelong’s Ramona Mataruga, with a tight match expected and so it proved to be, with the momentum see-sawing throughout, before Masa eventually prevailed, taking out a tense third and deciding set 7-5, coming back from 4-1 deficit in that last set.

After a short break, Masa and Ramona teamed up to take out the ladies doubles crown, edging out youngsters Jessica Fowler and Amy Stevens, while in the men’s doubles final, some breathtaking tennis ensued before Josh Charlton and Jack Clements emerged as narrow victors from Edward and Harry Bourchier.

A small but enthusiastic crowd of tennis buffs were in attendance and there were players from far and wide participating, including, among others, a group of Chinese players from a Shanghai tennis academy, gaining valuable experience on those great grass courts, wonderfully presented, incidentally, by curator David Quick. It was one fabulous tournament!