A Shepparton District Tennis Association club can now hang its hat alongside Victoria’s finest after a state meet last weekend.
The local contingent made the trip to leafy inner Melbourne to take on metro and regional standouts at the Tennis Victoria League Championships on back-to-back weekends.
To say it impressed would be a solid understatement.
First, the weekend of April 13-14 brought McEwen’s squad the opportunity to compete at Brighton East in Section 6, featuring a group from across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Tanner Hunter and Tim Comer, the dynamic duo from which big things came all season in the Shepparton summer competition, were on song throughout as McEwen took all three group games.
Such was its dominance over Officer Tennis Club, Royal South Yarra and Beaumaris Lawn Tennis Club, only McEwen finished the group with a positive games difference.
The time came for knockouts at the weekend at Royal South Yarra Lawn Tennis Club, the host of one of McEwen’s group stage victims.
Accounting for Bruce Park on the day left McEwen the last team standing in its section, crowned premier with nary an obstacle along the way.
Comer said his side was unmoved by the disproportionate travel that it overcame to win out easily.
“We got the job done pretty easily, but the standard was probably a bit lower than we expected in our group,” Comer said.
“We all played pretty well, which always helps with that.
“In the grand final (against Bruce Park), we were able to play just a bit more consistently than them and taking a couple of early sets sealed the deal for us in the end.
“We got down there early enough to have a hit and loosen up again and then we stayed the night as a team (in the group stage).”
Travel wasn’t the only question mark, though, with a different surface greeting the McEwen squad.
“It took us a bit to get used to the clay courts, as most of us hadn’t played on them,” Comer said.
“Usually we’re on the hard courts, but we were excited to try something different.”
McEwen claimed the Shepparton District Tennis Association pennant after picking up a 5-44 to 4-37 win over rival Shepparton North in a fiercely-fought grand final on February 2, denying North a pennant three-peat in the process.