Real Tennis – Day 3: Rob Fahey – a World Champion at 50!

The Queen’s Club, London

April 2018

Rob Fahey vs Camden Riviere

DAY THREE

 

Happy Birthday Rob Fahey!

 

 

For previous days’ reports go to Day One and Day Two

Fahey now needed to win two sets against an injured Camden to reach the magic number seven and the title.

He started well, leading 5-2 in the first with Camden hobbling a little.  It felt as though Rob would breeze through the next two sets and the day would be short. But Camden caught up and sneaked it 6-5 followed by a 6-0 whitewash. Five sets all and it looked now as though Camden would be the one to breeze through. Surely Rob wasn’t fit enough or mentally strong enough to come through.

Camden was now curving his volleys deep into the forehand corner off Rob’s giraffes or boasting off the main wall to make his opponent stretch and tire him out.

But Rob got to 5-3 and played that rarest of shots, the Coup de Cabasse, for set point. By now he was eating up Camden’s railroads, forcing for the dedans. Camden switched to the drag to take the pace off and prevent those forces and it seemed to work for a while but Rob started to get used to them.

Fahey managed to keep up the energy and finally emerged victorious, winning the final set 6-3.

For a man who described himself as “the greatest underdog since the 1930s”, this was a remarkable achievement. His 50th birthday was on the following day, At the grand age of 50 yrs, Rob Fahey is World Champion!

You may want to follow our new World Champion at Rob Fahey Twitter!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aySoYBMXbqQ