rackets Fixture

Neptune British Open Doubles Championship 2014

Draw

Sunday 13th April - Final

C.Portz & A.Titchener-Barrett beat J.Coyne & M.Bailey (4) 15/4 10/15 15/8 15/3 15/7

Sunday the 13^th April 2014 was a marathon of sporting events, the Masters Golf tournament, the London Marathon and a FA cup semi-final all taking place on one day. But most importantly at the Queen's club, the climax of the rackets season was coming to an end as they hosted the final of British Open Rackets doubles championships. At two o’clock, four players graced the court to battle it out in a best of seven format to become the champions. On one side, Mike Bailey was partnered by one half of the current world doubles champions, James Coyne on the other side the ex-world doubles champion, Alex Titchener-Barrett had paired with Christian Portz. This was to be potentially a tantalising match - two of the biggest hitters in the game on opposite sides, each partnering with one player who has exceptional hands whilst the other, is one of the up and coming rising players of the game. What made this more fascinating was the fact that Coyne and Bailey seeded four, had knocked out the current holders, Snell and James in a seven game thriller on Friday night whilst Titchener-Barrett and Portz, a new partnership and whom were not even seeded, had disposed of Foster and Hue Williams (the current British Amateur Champions) with ease in the quarter finals and then went on to beat the number two seeds, Stout and Gooding convincingly in the other semi.

The match started with ATB/Portz winning the toss and electing to serve. Having served the opening serve as an ace they were duly put out with Coyne coming in to serve the first hand. He served three rollers, so common on the Queens Club court, however at 3-1 lost his serve and Bailey only managed to add one more point to the tally. ATB/Portz capitalised on this and with the serve which is so important in doubles, closed the game out with a run of thirteen points in a row to take the game 15/4.

Game two started and ATB/Portz only managed 2 points before losing the side and Coyne and Bailey came in for a run of five points with Bailey achieving most of the points on his serve. With some hard hitting and extremely steady play from Portz, ATB/Portz regained the advantage and moved to 7-5 lead. After both sides were put out twice and they both exchanged points to level at 10-all, Coyne came into to serve and moved to a 14-10 advantage. Serving for the game, ATB/Portz dug deep and a mistake from Coyne in hitting the tin, they lost the first hand. Curiously ATB/Portz called for a new ball and Bailey stepped up from the right hand side of the box and served a roller to Portz. The second game 15/10 to Coyne/Bailey.

The third game started and it was clear which side wanted this championship. ATB/Portz immediately returned to the box and raced to an 8-1 advantage. However once again Coyne/Bailey couldn’t accumulate the points needed to apply pressure only adding two to their tally. At 11-6 to ATB/Portz this game was looking to end quite quickly, however Bailey and Coyne held in there and got back to serve at 6-13 but once again couldn’t capitalise on the server’s advantage and added just 2 more points before TB/Portz closed out the game 15/8.

The fourth game was won with strong variation and power serving by Portz. This accompanied by the power of Titchener-Barrett and also utilising a lot of mistakes by Coyne, most notably in hitting the tin this was the quickest game and they took it with ease 15/3.

In the final game, the ATB/Portz were put out immediately but Coyne/Bailey couldn’t put a run of points together and lost the side. ATB/Portz pulled together six points for 6-0 lead. But again Coyne/Bailey couldn’t string a point together and before they knew it were 8-0 down. Again poor serving and strong combined team play by ATB/Portz allowed them to come in again and steal points and at 12-7 they closed out the game 15/7 to become the new British Open Doubles Champions.

By A Gourlay

Friday 11th April - Semi-finals

C.Portz & A.Titchener-Barrett beat J.Stout & M.Gooding (2) 15/6 15/6 15/7 13/18 3/15 15/10

J.Coyne & M.Bailey (4) beat B.Snell & N.James (1) 13/16 6/15 15/0 15/10 15/5 12/15 15/4

Thursday 10th April

J.Stout & M.Gooding (2) bt T.Billings & R.Tulley (QF) 15/7 15/11 15/8 15/11

Wednesday 9th April

B.Snell & N.James (1) vs J.Bailey & P.Maxwell (QF) 15/2 15/5 15/13 15/7

C.Portz & A.Titchener-Barrett bt H.Foster & M.Hue Williams (3) (QF) 18/15 15/8 18/17 15/10

Tuesday 8th April

J.Stout & M.Gooding (2) bt B.Sayers & M.Shaw 15/6 15/11 15/10 15/3

J.Coyne & M.Bailey (4) bt P.Sutton & M.Hubbard (QF) 15/12 15/3 15/10 15/1

Sunday 6th April

C.Portz & A.Titchener-Barrett bt H.Faber & T.Faber w/o

J.Coyne & M.Bailey (4) bt N.Hutton & A.Coldicott 15/8 15/12 15/9 15/12

P.Sutton & M.Hubbard bt O.Howick & C.Hammond 15/1 15/3 15/9 15/8

J.Bailey & P.Maxwell bt A.Stout & A.Mason 15/6 15/5 15/6 15/7

B.Snell & N.James (1) bt D.Wright & W.Morse 15/0 15/10 15/4 15/3

Saturday 5th April

A.Gourlay & G.Sandbach bt C.Medlow & A.Lyons 15/0 9/15 15/6 1/15 15/10 15/4

T.Billings & R.Tulley bt Burnett & A.Judd 15/10 15/3 15/2 15/3

D.Wright & W.Morse bt T.Floyd & S.Roundell 15/1 15/5 15/1 15/9

H.Foster & M.Hue Williams (3) bt A.Gourlay & G.Sandbach 15/3 15/11 15/4 18/13

Friday 4th April

B.Sayers & M.Shaw bt O.Harris & R.MacNaughtan 15/13 15/2 15/6 15/2

Burnett & A.Judd bt A.Portz & S.Knight w/o

Thursday 3rd April

O.Howick & C.Hammond bt R.Ramsay & J.Fuller 12/15 15/1 15/7 15/10 15/12

Wednesday 2nd April

N.Hutton & A.Coldicott bt L.Bose & N.Navapurkar 15/3 15/11 17/14 15/2

A.Gourlay & G.Sandbach bt T.Seymour-Mead & A.Fowler 15/0 15/11 17/18 15/5 15/4

Tuesday 1st April

C.Medlow & A.Lyons bt J.Telling & D.Dundas 15/2 15/9 15/4 15/11