Left: Victorian Grasscourt Men’s Singles champion Jay Salter with the spoils of victory.By Amy Taylor
ENDEAVOUR Hills tennis sensation Jay Salter won the prestigious Victorian Grasscourt Men’s Singles Championship held at Geelong Lawn Tennis Club last month.
The district was well represented in the tournament, with seven and nine competitors in the men’s and women’s open draws respectively.
Salter (the number four seed), North Dandenong’s Marinko Matosevic (one) and Clayton South’s Anthony Di Domenico (15) were rated the region’s best chances in the men’s singles event.
Salter dumped Matosevic in straight sets, 7-6, 6-4, to proceed to the final, where he met 12th seed and doubles finalist Adam Hubble and came away with a 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 result to cap a great year on the court.
Hubble troubled Salter in previous meetings, but the 32-year-old, who was champion in 2005 and runner-up in 2006, successfully claimed the 2007 title with a sustained effort over three-sets.
Salter has been competing in the tournament for 16 years and credited his victorious year to experience and to ‘maybe playing wiser with age.’
He not only won the Victorian State Championship, but was also named State Grade Pennant Player of the Year for 2007 and won the Victorian Silver Points Circuit that runs in conjunction with the tennis season with players accumulating points for each match.
“I’d been following it (the Silver Points Circuit) every round – it’s been a really unbelievable season,” he said.
The modest tennis star described the year as the most successful of his career.
His success last year included wins at the Warrnambool Labour Day Open and Frankston Tennis Classic, along with a place in the AMT (Australian Money Tournament) finals in Queensland and runner-up in the Shepparton Easter Tennis tournament.
When he is not strutting his stuff on the court, his main aim is to coach up-and-coming tennis stars of the future at Harkaway Tennis Club, Upper Ferntree Gully and White Slain Tennis Club (Glen Waverley).
Salter has been involved in coaching youngsters for the past 10 years and said he enjoyed the challenge.
“I’m fortunate to be coaching such aspiring young adults,” he said.
The triumphant Endeavour Hills sportsman finds inspiration from his young pupils and hopes to one day see his students shine on the big stage.
The next hurdle for Salter is the Pennant State Grade competition that runs over a 14-week period from March to September, but he will first take a well-earned break from training with a trip overseas before preparing for the season ahead.
In other results Keysborough’s Lisa D’Amelio (number two seed), Cranbourne’s Chloe West (three) and Devon Meadows’ Ashleigh Hancock (16) led the charge in the women’s singles.
West was upset 7-5, 6-2 in the quarter-finals by fifth seed Jo-Anne Karaitiana, while former world number 363 D’Amelio also had a tough time with Karaitiana before triumphing 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to move into the final, where she was overrun by Australian Institute of Sport sensation Alenka Hubacek.
Hubacek’s huge game blew D’Amelio away in the opening set before the former Cranbourne star began attacking the net in the second set.
D’Amelio’s style change helped her lock the match up at a set apiece to set up a dramatic finish, but she ultimately lost in a thrilling third set tiebreak, 6-0, 4-6, 7-6.
