Real Tennis – Day One; Can Camden hang onto his title?

The Queen’s Club, London

24 April 2018

Rob Fahey vs Camden Riviere

DAY ONE

A taster – from the previous world championships

Camden Riviere was here to defend his title! Fahey was very much the underdog, mostly due to the considerable age difference. You can train as much as you like but giving away nearly 20 years is a pretty tall order.

The match was to be played over three days, four sets per session with the first to reach seven sets the winner. There was to be a day’s break between each day’s play to give the time for the players to rest and, more importantly, to work on their tactics.

Current world champion Camden Riviere is 31 yrs old, his opponent Rob Fahey 49 yrs. Rob was the holder for an incredible 22 years before Camden knocked him off his perch in 2016.Both players tried several service tactics with varying success. Rob persisted with the giraffe, trying to make it drop dead near the back wall, but on the whole, the serve wasn’t tight enough to bother Camden; so he tried his hand at the railroad from the centre of the court around chase 5. You need serious strength to bring this off. It was a sensible switch but it’s an exhausting serve to use and took its toll .

Camden mostly used the railroad, an obvious choice for a left-hander but couldn’t contain the power of Rob’s returns who belted the ball into the dedans over and over and which helped  him win the first set. Unusually, he probably made more points from the hazard end than when he was serving.

When Camden worked out that the demi-piqué was the right serve to use, giving Rob no pace to work with and pinning him close to the back wall, the match changed.

The pace and length of the rallies were also breaking Rob down. By the end he was clearly exhausted, the footwork sloppy, reaching forward for shots rather than being on top of them.

Camden reeled off the next three sets, the last one to love.

Would the match carry on til the Saturday?  With four sets to go on the Thursday, Camden might win them all and reached the magic seven- set number which would give him the title.

 Riviere leads three sets to one  (4/6 6/3 6/5 6/0)