Sense and suspense

It might be just a mere coincidence, but looking at the last few Eurobuild CEE tennis and golf tournaments it could easily be said that two things seem to be guaranteed: fine weather and the good luck they bring to the best Polish men’s tennis player, Jerzy Janowicz. On the day of the Eurobuild tournaments he beat Lleyton Hewitt and advanced to the third round at Wimbledon, despite a recent collapse of form. Whether there is a connection between these facts is still be open to discussion, but the participants of the tennis competition at the WTS DeSki courts in Warsaw did seem to meet the high standards set up by the Polish international. This year’s was particularly high, as was unanimously noted by all the observers. We could tell that also by the performance of our colleague from Eurobuild, Nathan North, who despite fighting bravely in two sets in the group stage, did not even snatch a game. The women in particular provided a highly entertaining and suspense-filled spectacle. Małgorzata Mazek of Cushman & Wakefield won the tournament, after a fierce struggle against Małgorzata Komosińska decided in a tie-break (after Mazek had made a fantastic comeback from 1:4 down in the set), and a very close match against Marta Lander (7:5), as well as easing to victory against Agnieszka Lucińska (6:1), who nevertheless took second place on the podium. In the men’s tournament it was all between Rafał Twarowski and Michał Małaszyński, who met in the final. The former had reached that stage losing only two games on the way, whereas the latter, on the other hand, had to struggle his way through a number of tough clashes, including an exhausting semi-final in which he beat Wojciech Jurek 6:4. He looked visibly tired after this encounter, which might have contributed to his performance in the final, where he lost to Rafał Twarowski 4:6. This was not the first triumph by the winner, as he has made it to the podium several times in the previous meetings of the competition.

But as the tennis players were slugging it out, the other tournament was taking place on the Rajszew golf course, 27 km north of Warsaw. As has already become a tradition in this tournament, not only golf veterans could take part, but those new to the game could try their hand at it, thanks to the golf academy. Two hours of training bore wonderful results and newly fledged golfer Małgorzata Kowalczyk claimed her prize after delivering a 120m drive, while Adam Miłosz was the winner of the closest to the pin competition. The experienced golfers, on the other hand, must have had a weaker day, because this year’s results by no means matched those recorded in previous years. The best performance (to the shame of the local Rajszew golf club members, who were playing at home) was given by Arkadiusz Majsterek from Łódź. He won the Strokeplay Gross (80 points) and came second in the Stroke Play Net, in which he was beaten only by Jacek Orzech. Third place was taken by Mariusz Krużyński. In the Stableford competition it was Tom Leach who claimed the first prize, followed by Park Jong Man and Agnieszka Kmit. Others that tasted victory included Michał Poniż, who delivered the longest drive on the 9th hole, and the three closest to the pin players: Sunny Ahuja (3rd hole), Rafał Majchrzak (14th hole) and Rhea Wiatr (16th hole). The winners of the two tournaments were handed their prizes at the evening gala in the Endorfina restaurant on ul. Foksal in Warsaw. As has become customary at these gala events the champions, the runners-up and the also-rans had the chance to reconcile over food, wine and drinks, as well as on the dance floor. Their entertainment was laid on by the Sense of Move female dance troupe – a name very apt for the occasion, since everyone who took part in the sporting exertions of the day needed no convincing of the sense of moving – regardless of the result.