Opponents team up for win

Just a week after facing off for the singles title in the region’s Champion of Champion’s tennis tournament, Maddi Crofts and Michelle Cook teamed up to win a State country title.

Crofts and Cook won the open ladies team event at the WA Country Tennis Championships, played at Dalkeith Tennis Club in hot conditions at the weekend.

Representing the Lower Great Southern tennis region, the pair dominated all their rounds, which consisted of two sets of singles and two sets of doubles.

The championship started on Saturday, with Crofts and Cook opening with a dominant display against the Great Southern team 6-0, 6-0, 6-2, 6-0. They also took the points in convincing fashion against Central Districts 6-0, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 on Saturday.

In the final two rounds on Sunday, Crofts and Cook defeated the second Lower Great Southern team 6-2, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2, before sealing victory against Midwest-South Coast with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 win.

It is the second year in a row Cook has won the championship after partnering Albany’s Sam Capararo and Nicky Thompson to win last year.

The title caps off a successful season for Crofts, who a week earlier defeated Cook to win the Champion of Champion’s women’s singles crown for the first time.

She also teamed with her brother Aaron Crofts to win A-grade mixed doubles titles in Albany and Esperance.

The Lower Great Southern men did not fare as well at the WA Country Championship.