Sherbure Connection Dominate Norwich Tennis Tournament
The top seeds held as the 2002 Norwich tennis Tournament sponsored by the Norwich Public Tennis Club concluded Sunday August 11th. Top seed Peter Karaman defeated second seed Tom Mody, both Sherburne natives, 6-4, 6-2. Earlier that day in the doubles final Karaman and Mody, the top doubles seed, defeated the second seed Fred Bateman of mcDonough and Brian Murphy of Oxford 7-5, 6-4.
The tournament held at Weiler Park began play Friday evening and featured talent from around the county. In the Saturday heat Oxford's Kyle Reiss made a strong showing taking Mody to three sets before losing 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 in the first singles emi. Fred bateman went deep into the tournament as always losing to Karaman in the other semi 6-1, 6-2. Both top doubles seeds had no problem advancing to Sunday's final finishing an unblemished 4-0. Norwich's Zack Keller and Jason Ingraham also looked good finishing 2-2.
Both sets of doubles finals were settled by late service breaks. In the second set, Murphy held off three match points on his serve before Karaman and Mody finall prevailed to take their second tournament title. The singles final featured the long time rivals having to suck it up after a draining weekend of tennis. Mody, looking for his second singles title, attacked the net early in each set to gain the break advantage. the turning point in the match actually occured in the first set as Karaman saved a tough game to prevent Mody from going up 4-1. From there Karaman settled down and executed relaxed strokes of sliced passing shots and lobs to keep Mody guessing and frustrated. "After 10 years we finally met in a match that meant something", said Mody. "It hurts to loose this one". The singles title is Karaman's first in the annual Norwich event. Finally, Brian Murphy defeated Zack Keller in the singles consolation final.
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