TENNIS – TC Nieuwerkerk Maas de Koning is the new national tennis champion. The home team was defeated in the final of the Premier League club teams at the TC Suthwalda sports park in Zuidwolde. After the singles, Suthwalda already faced a 3-1 deficit, after which the visitors finally finished it off in the doubles.
Since 2019, Suthwalda has been playing with the first men’s team in the premier division of the national tennis competition. The Zuidwoldiger association has already been crowned national champion four times in that period. Just like last year, the people of Drenthe played the final for the national championship against the South Hollanders.
They then managed to narrowly win, but this time Suthwalda lost out.
A battered Suthwalda started the final day, consisting of four singles and two doubles, extremely difficult. Moreover, the home team had to do without the injured Niels Visker, Abel Forger and doubles specialist Sander Arends.
Boy Westerhof and Miliaan Niesten lost their singles match on the sweltering clay, meaning the Drenthe team quickly found themselves 2-0 behind. All eyes were then focused on Jarno Jans and the field next to the Englishman Finn Bass. The two trendsetters treated the audience in the blazing sun to long rallies, hard shots and spectacular power tennis. The club received 1 point for each winning game.
Jarno Jans single-handedly defeated Suthwalda very cleverly in the final by beating Michiel de Krom: 6-4 and 7-6. With his aggressive play and hard winners he kept the home team alive. As a result, there would be doubles anyway.
On the next track things went wrong for Finn Bass against Ryan Nijboer. Bass started strong, but saw his opponent getting better and better in the match. Ultimately, Nijboer took control of the match: 4-6, 6-4 and 6-1.
