RMTC hosted the 2011 Victorian Open on the weekend of 14-16 October. The field included both Men’s and Women’s World Champions and the current Australian amateur champion and Ballarat was represented by Club Champion Daniel Williams. In what was certainly a first for Real Tennis (and probably for most sports) Daniel played consecutive rounds of an event against two reigning World Champions. In the QF he defeated Claire Vigrass 6/5 5/6 6/3 in an extremely tight, high quality match lasting over 2 hours. The reward was to front up the next morning against Rob Fahey. Daniel managed to extract a few beads of sweat out of Rob as he scrambled around the court retrieving Rob’s perfectly weighted shots, managing to drag 6/0 6/1 out for almost an hour and certainly getting a lesson along the way in how to play a perfect length.
The final saw Rob play Keiran Booth who smashed his way to a 6/4 3/1 lead hitting with enormous power and vicious cut until Rob raised a gear, tightened his railroad and ran out a 4/6 6/3 6/3 victor. Both players played a series of seemingly “impossible” shots as they prepare for the British Open next month.
