College serves it up at tennis
17 Feb 2022
The 2022 tennis season is off to a strong start with College assembling a competitive squad for the annual Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Tennis Championships held this week at Wilding Park.
Six senior boys were selected in two different divisions. Jasper Johnson (Year 13) and Year 12s Liam Barrett, Lucca Wiseman and George Brackenridge competed in the Year 12/13 men’s division; Year 11 players Lucas Evans and Franklin Barry represented College in the Year 11 men’s division.
Most had major victories in their opening rounds to cruise into the quarter and semi-finals.
Day 2 featured some high-quality matchups. Lucas Evans and Franklin Barry each fought hard before being overpowered, taking 3rd and 4th place respectively in the singles. The pair went on to dominate the doubles competition, winning by an outstanding 24 games to 2.
Jasper Johnson, despite suffering an early knock out on opening day, bounced back to harass his opponents in his service game and thunderous forehands down-the-line, to win the final 4-0, 4-2, for the consolation tournament, and reach the year 12/13 men’s doubles finals with George Brackenridge.
The Year 12/13 men’s singles saw Lucca Wiseman defeated after an 83-min marathon against the top seed, only to engage in another 100-min showdown against an evenly matched opponent in the 3rd/4th place play offs. Lucca finished 4th.
Liam Barrett won the men’s singles competition in spite of playing against the strongest players in Canterbury. He comfortably won 4-1, 4-0 in the quarter finals and 6-0, 6-3 in the semi-finals to play top seed Duncan McCall in the final. Liam was leading 6-3 before his opponent had to retire with an injury.
