A 22-year break between tennis titles

VETERAN tennis player Joel Fredman took out his second Victorian Jewish Tennis Championship on the weekend, defeating fellow stalwart Stephen Sharp 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

Fredman last won the tournament back in 1991 when was just 19 and toppled now Federal MP Josh Frydenberg in the semifinal and Jeff Nissenbaum in the final.

Click here to buy photos from the Victorian Jewish Tennis Championships

The 40-year-old showed he had not lost his touch since his last championships win, brushing aside several of Maccabi Tennis Club’s emerging aces, including straight-set wins over Saul Muscatel and Naveh Dvir Ovadia.

Sharp, who is 48 and a three-time champion of the event in the 1980s, got off to a great start in this year’s playoff, taking the first set 6-4.

But Fredman was able to lift the tempo and won the second set 6-3 as Sharp began to fatigue, having already played in the men’s doubles final earlier in the day, which he won with brother Danny over Steven Gostin and Muscatel 4-6, 7-6, 6-2.

The eventual champion then stepped up another notch in the third and final set, with his forehand winners ensuring he ran away with the win.

The story of the championships was the victory for 10-year-old Holly Feldman, who won the girls’ under-17 event, defeating players six years older than her, including Jennifer Eisfelder 6-3, 7-6 in the final.

Feldman’s mother Elissa was able to continue the family’s success, winning the mixed double’s final with former professional player Assaf Drori 6-2, 6- 2 over Russel and Bianca Harris.

In the boy’s under-17 final, Jared Joffe defeated Jess Flick 7-6, 7-5 in a tight encounter, before teaming with Ryan Sharp to defeat Saul Jayes and Adam Rushford 2-6, 7-6, 6-3 in the boys’ junior double’s category.

Click here to buy photos from the Victorian Jewish Tennis Championships

Paul Silberscher

Photo: Peter Haskin

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