Victorian Championships at Geelong Lawn

Tennis Victoria’s 2017 Victorian Grasscourt Championships were held at Geelong Lawn Tennis Club, starting on Wednesday, December 27 and finishing with a great day of semi-finals and finals on Saturday December 30.

The prestigious Platinum-level event was graciously sponsored yet again by long-time supporter, the adjacent Barwon River Tourist Park, along with local radio stations K rock 95.5 and Bay 93.9.

A strong entry of 120 players (66 men and 54 ladies) came from all parts of the country to compete with Geelong players James Brushfield, Adam Lasky, Ry Davies and Matt Hicks prominent, while Geelong ladies Ramona Mataruga, Olivia Symonds, Amy Stevens, Carolyn McGann and Olivia Ryan led the local charge.

Weather was a real smorgasbord – very hot for qualifying, while the finals matches saw cool weather and even a little threatening rain, which briefly held up play.

Doubles started on Thursday, and on Friday, it was the business end of the tournament, with singles and doubles quarterfinals played, with the semi-finals and championship matches decided on Saturday.

Men’s singles champ was again the mercurial Daniel Byrnes in a topsy-turvy three-setter against top seed Melburnian Jeremy Beale, while young local star Ramona Mataruga had the best win of her career, defeating Melbourne player and number one seed Georgiana Ruhrig in a tough, but straight-sets victory.

Men’s doubles title went to Geelong coaches Ry Davies and Adam Lasky, while Georgiana Ruhrig got some consolation for her singles defeat by teaming with Binasa Beslagic for victory in the ladies doubles.

All of the scores and details can be found on the Tennis Victoria/tournament website.

That was the Victorian grasscourts for 2017. Thank you to curator David Quick, tournament officials, volunteers and all those fantastic players.