The Off Season 2014 - #2

After the Nepean event Greg spent a few days recuperating in Sydney then headed off to Auckland. Greg, along with good Kiwi mate Ruben Statham, young Jordan Thompson from NSW, Artem Sitak and the other top New Zealand players were invited to play in the Wither Hills West End Cup tennis tournament in Auckland, the first event in the NZ Festival of Tennis. Greg was keen to play in the event as he had missed out playing there last year due to other commitments and also to give his back a good test prior to making a decision to play in the Australian Open Wild Card Play-off in December.


The crowd and concessions

Greg, seeded No.3, had a bye in the first round so did not play until Saturday, which was a quarter-final match. His opponent was 24 year-old Finn Tearney from NZ, ranked 1591, but who had a handy game, having taken a set off Jordan Thompson earlier in the year. Again on a synthetic grass surface Greg struggled with his movement and adapting to the surface.

Greg steadies for a forehand

However in the normal set format he was able to slowly work his way into the match and get used to the surface under match conditions, eeking out a 7-5, 7-5 win over Tearney.

Lunch with the spectators

In the semi-finals on Sunday Greg faced up against the No.2 seed Ruben Statham, winner of the tournament last year. Ruben was on fire early on and took advantage of Greg's hesitancy on the synthetic surface, delivering a bagel first set 6-0 score over Greg. He then went an early break up in the second set but Greg fought back, levelling the score and getting the score to 5-5. Ruben held for 6-5, then broke Greg to register a 6-0, 7-5 win over Greg to advance to the final for the second year in a row.


Ruben launching into a serve

Later that afternoon Ruben went on to beat the No.1 seed Jordan Thompson to win back-to-back titles.
Greg said it was an enjoyable tournament, with plenty of hard fought competitive tennis, played in good spirit. His only problem was that his back is still causing him some pain and will most probably cause him to not contest the AO Wild card play-off and the rigours of playing the best of five-set matches on the hard courts of Melbourne Park. He will rather get some expert advice and treatment or physiotherapy, in an attempt to be fully fit and ready for the 2015 tennis year.