Echuca 5 serves up revenge

“I was a number three and four player in division two last year,” Gronow said.

“So now I'm playing against more high-end players, which hopefully improves my tennis, but it's a bit daunting.

“It’s not ideal, but I suppose it's what we had to do in tennis.”

Gronow’s Echuca 5 actually played a team on Saturday it lost to in the division two final last season — Colbinabbin.

And although both teams have changed a bit, he was able to enjoy some revenge.

It was even sweeter to win by only two games, 51-49 after the sides split the 12 sets 6-6.

“It’s always good to beat them,” Gronow said.

But how close was it really? It doesn’t always work out as a photo finish when 12 rubbers are being played at different times.

“We put all the mixed doubles on at the same time,” Gronow said.

“Three of them finished earlier, and they were up a game with the last mixed to play.”

The mixed rubbers were split 2-2, while each side won the other categories comfortably — Colbo 3-1 in men’s doubles; Echuca by the same margin in women’s.

In the end, Echuca’s dominance in the women’s section was the difference, with its set wins being 6-0, 6-2 and 6-2.

The club have taken the approach to balance the quality of its five senior teams.

Of course, each individual side can mix and match doubles pairings as it sees fit.

In the mixed section, Echuca 5 had an interesting method, one which just about worked well enough.

“We had both number one players together, two with two, three with three, four with four, but they switched theirs up a bit,” Gronow said.

“I don't know if it's an advantage for us.

“Obviously, the two top teams did really well, though the bottom ones had to play against better opponents.”

Elsewhere in the CTA seniors, Echuca 1 edged LBU 51-47 on games after they also split rubbers 6-6.

Meanwhile, Echuca 2 served up an easy win against Echuca 4 — taking nine of the 12 sets.