The Women’s team swept day 1 with victories over UQ 3-2 and Deakin 5-0. The first match of the day saw the women’s team battle it out against a strong and home court advantaged UQ, also being decided in the last doubles match for the tie, with Berlinda Lim/Macey Ren taking it out in a match tie break 9-8 (4) after some stellar volleys from Lim which would turn heads of Edberg and Rafter. Following up from this victory the ladies won comfortably against Deakin in a rain battled afternoon, with Tammy Smith cruising at #3, 9-1 and Stefani Stoijic/Vienne Lu wrapping up the day with an impressive 9-1 victory.

Going into Day 2, both teams are settling in well to the balmy conditions here in the Gold Coast, with big matches coming up to battle for the top dog spot in the pools.

The women’s team won their only match of the day, against back-to-back winners UTS, dominating them 4-1. The singles award goes to Berlinda Lim who produced her best match of the tournament, taking out hard hitting Nikolina Voulgaris 9-3. Lim showed Federer like footwork to use her big forehand and guile around the court. Following up from the singles, the top pairing of Monika Rajicic/Stefani Stoijic destroyed their opponents 9-1, solidifying their names as the tournaments best doubles pairing so far. The ladies are resting up now for their last round robin match against a super strong, yet beatable RMIT team, before heading to the semi finals.

The Men’s Team had a well deserved morning off in preparation for their semi finals against an in form USYD. Kicking off the match with the singles, #1 Tyler Tranquille kept his form in check by winning his tricky match against a fiery lefty 9-6. Marcus Bulmaga and Ronald Pak went down in their singles, but not without a fight, sending Melbourne uni into the doubles 2-1 down, however this is where the magic happened! Our all star team of #2 Benson/Watson were playing side by side with the talented top pairing of #1 Tranquille/Yiappos. Both matches went down to the wire, being battled out in the tie break! Arguably being one of the greatest doubles tie breaks in the history of uni nationals, Tranquille/Yiappos produced tennis of the Gods, saving match point after Yiappos found a massive first serve and Tranquille forced an error out of his opponent before sealing the win with a backhand lob! Even the heckling from USYD couldn’t break through the stellar concentration and skills set of our number one pair. Following on from this, Benson/Watson put the nail in the coffin by winning their breaker 7-0 and sending the men’s team into the final against RMIT today!

History has been made with both men’s and women’s teams playing off for gold today at 2:60pm. No matter what happens, both teams can hold their heads up high and be proud of their achievements, but as coach Hossain says, “The show ain’t over yet baby!!!”

On the men’s side, the team took on in form RMIT Sport, where #1 Tyler Tranquille played the match of his life to beat the undefeated Jack Thiessen 9-3 at the #1 position with stellar backhands down the line that couldn’t be hit with more precision. Rounding out the singles with a victory at the #3 position, young gun and a man to watch in the future, Marcus Bulmaga cruised to victory 9-2, finishing the match off with a 215 km/hr ace. The boys took advantage of the healthy lead and brought home the gold medal with doubles specialist Alexandros Yiappos producing stellar tennis to take the match 9-4 at the #1 position with Tranquille. It has been 6 years since The University of Melbourne men’s have tasted victory and the first time its ever been done at the Division 1 level only. Yiappos joins our successful pennant team in yet another victory at the elite level of tennis.

The women’s side saw us take on home favourites UQ Sport in the championship match. Defeating them in the round robin match on day 1 gave us confidence going in, but with some injury risks and UQ changing their line up, this was always going to be a tactical match for us. With tactical expert Coach Hossain at the helm, the team was in good hands and placed Macey Ren at #3 singles for the first time in the tournament, with Macey producing the match of her life to win 9-4. On song and untouchable star Stefani Stojic once again rampaged through her match 9-2, sending the women’s team into the doubles round 2-1, a formidable lead as such. The famous duo of Ren/Berlinda Lim produced arguably the doubles match of the tournament, taking out the match 9-1 and locking in victory for the women’s team, with Monika Rajicic/Stojic winning their doubles match shortly after.

Melbourne Uni has never won both the men’s and women’s titles together and history has been written! Let 2018 be the year that Melbourne Uni climbs its way to the top of the mountain with only bigger and better things to come!!!

Thank you to the University Tennis Academy and Junaid Hossain for his work preparing and traveling with the team during the 2018 campaign.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships” – Michael Jordan