The final week of the regular season for the Stratford Tennis League saw a shake up in the standings. With playoff positioning on the line, underdog teams came up with big wins to make the final standings the closest in league history.

The early game saw third place team Donkers Agri dominate second place Sunrise Health Services. The men’s #1 doubles was a default to Donkers as Sunrise could not field its team. The men’s #2 doubles also went to Donkers as Tom Warnock and Todd Chisholm pasted Jagdish Patel and Steven Fischer 6-2  6-0. Donkers’ #1 ladies doubles team of Marta Andrekovic and Maria Donkers edged Claire Scott and Nancy Rheaume 7-6 (7 points to 5 in the tie-breaker) , 6-3. The ladies #2 doubles went to Donkers as well as Lise Couture and Erma Weernick scored a 6-1  7-6 (7 to 3 in the tie-breaker) win over Marilyn Leasa and Marilyn Holmes.

With the #1 and #2 mixed doubles matches defaulted to Donkers a sweep of all the sets seemed possible. Donkers took the #3 mixed match 6-2 as Couture and Warnock downed Leasa and Patel. The streak was finally broken in the #4 mixed match as Sunrise’s Holmes and Fischer were able to nip Weernick and Chisholm 7-5. 

The 11-1 win in sets for Donkers moved them past Sunrise in the standings and put them in contention for first place, depending on the results of the late game.

Going into the late game La Debonaire Hair Design held a 2 set lead over Sunrise and 8 set lead over Donkers for top spot in the standings. Fourth place Snap started the match by taking the men’s #1 doubles as Shannon Dyke and Chris Parson downed Richard Bast and Steven Schwartzentruber 6-3  6-4. The men’s #2 doubles was a split as La Debonaire’s Jim Wilson and Cameron Kramer took the first set 6-1 , while Snap’s Murray Schiedel and Gary Henry won the second set 6-4. The ladies #1 doubles also split with Johanna Billings and Naomi Lange of Snap winning 6-1 before La Debonaire’s Krista Plociennik and Ginny Smith rebounded for a 6-4 win in the second set. The ladies #2 doubles went to Nancy Chung and Liz Yundt of Snap as they defeated Sandra Hofing and Jolanda Vandereijk 6-1  6-3.

The mixed doubles began with La Debonaire taking the #1 match as Plociannik and Bast topped Bllings and Dyke 6-3. Snap took the #2 mixed match with Lange and Parson scoring a 6-1 win over Smith and Schwartzentruber. Chung and Schiedel of Snap took the #3 mixed with a 6-4 win over Hofing and Wilson. The #4 mixed went to a tie-breaker where Yundt and Henry of Snap edged Vandereijk and Kramer 7 points to 4.

With Snap scoring a dominating 9 set to 3 win over La Debonaire, this left the standings as close as they have ever been. La Debonaire and Donkers ended the season tied in the total sets won. The games won/games lost tie-breaker gave first place to La Debonaire Hair Design. Donkers Agri ended in second place , while Sunrise Health Services barely held off Snap for third place. The playoffs begin on August 20th with La Debonaire taking on Snap in the early game and Donkers facing Sunrise in the late game. 

Bill White

 Claire Scott of Sunrise Health Services focuses on a forehand in the ladies doubles.