Stephenson and Sivewright 'Kings of the tie-break'

ALEX Stephenson and Dominic Sivewright took on Andrew Regan and Pete Ireland in an epic battle that went to the wire, with every set going to a tie-break.

- DAVE AND SUE GALE

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With both pairs breaking their opponents serve throughout the first set, it was inevitable that the first set would go to a tie-break which was won by Alex and Dom 7-2 after some strong cross-court groundstrokes.

Alex and Dom took the lead in the second set, leading 5-3, but Andrew and Pete broke serve and fought back with some excellent volleys returning the ball at exceptional angles and taking the match to a second tie break.

Again, Alex and Dom found their rhythm with strong serving taking the second set 7-3 on the tie-break before Alex and Dom took a comfortable 4-1 lead in the third set.

However, they couldn't close the final set out and Andrew and Pete continued to play exceptional tennis forcing the tie-break for a third time.

However, Dom and Alex proved themselves to be tie-break masters and took the final set by winning seven consecutive points for a 7-2 win and winning overall 6-5, 6-5, 6-5.

A slow start from John Putman and sub Dave Gale saw Ross Bunney and Jon Jacobs race to a 6-0 first set win. There was a cagey start to the second set, but Ross and Jon took it 6-2 and the third set was more competitive but Ross and Jon finally got on top to take it and win 6-0, 6-2, 6-3.

Mark Skerton and James Driscoll started with some excellent tennis in their match with Lawrence Hay and Arash Dinari, who managed to edge the first set.

In the second set, Mark pulled a calf muscle and the match looked in doubt of being finished.

After a stretch, play resumed with Mark and James going up several gears, taking the set and hitting winners from all over the court, putting the winning streak of Lawrence and Arash in doubt.