RGS retain B Division Tennis Championship title after close victory over Nanyang Girls’ High

Story and pictures by Marvin Lowe/Red Sports

Kallang Tennis Centre, Friday, February 27, 2009 – After two agonizing days caused by a rain delay, the final deciding game was over in just minutes. With two unforced errors, Nanyang Girls’ High conceded the B Division Girls Tennis Championship title to Raffles Girls’ School. It was a close affair but RGS held their nerves to emerge victorious in in the tie-breaker and win the title by a 3-2 margin.

In the final tie-breaker, it was a doubles match up between Elizabeth Wong and Nancy Jiang of RGS against Danielle Eng and Amanda Koh of Nanyang Girls’. Nanyang won the first set but RGS fought back to win the second and were leading 5-1 in the final set at one stage. However the final RGS double pairing allowed their Nanyang counterpart to claw back to 5-4 before rain halted play on Wednesday.

RGS was serving for the match and the game was tied at 30-30 when the heavens opened up and rain down. Play was suspended and was supposed to resume on Thursday but it rained on that day as well. Play finally resumed on Friday and it was a nail-biting finish to an exciting final.

It was a close and tense fight between RGS and Nanyang all the way. Chelsea Foong of RGS won her first singles match against Audrey Lee of Nanyang, whitewashing her 6-0, 6-0. However Nanyang answered back with Sia Huey Teng who handed the same 6-0, 6-0 loss to Veronica Teo of RGS.

Nanyang then took the first doubles point with a 6-4, 6-1 victory. Nicole Rosenberger of RGS then made it 2-2 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Nicole Goh of Nanyang.

RGS then proceeded to win the final rain-delayed doubles to retain their crown for the third year running.

Coach Hassan Bohari, who also coaches ACS(I), was extremely delighted with the win and was very proud of the girls for doing so well. When asked what he said to the girls when the game was rained off, he revealed, “I told them that they were already champions and to think like winners and that they are the best.”

Both Nancy and Elizabeth were grateful for the support given by Coach Hassan, their teachers and their teammates. They shared that they were able to sleep well despite the game being rained out twice. However, when the game did resume, nerves did take over again.

“My hands were shaking non-stop and my heart was pounding so fast!!” said Elizabeth animatedly. For the girls, there were no more signs of nerves but signs of joy, elation and relief that they managed to pull of the victory.