Two weeks ago we sent out the invitation, on Sunday we celebrated: Social Sunday turned one and 46 players came to mark the occasion on courts 1 to 4. It was no longer high summer, but it stayed dry and we could play the whole afternoon through.
The tournament
Shortly after 2 pm we got going. The format was a doubles round robin with a twist: in every round our tournament software drew new partners and new opponents, then it was 15 minutes of continuous tiebreak until the bell rang. Whoever was not on court sat in the sun, grabbed a drink or cheered from the sidelines.
By the final round at half past five that added up to twelve rounds with 59 doubles and a total of 1,646 points played. The fact that nothing was at stake stopped nobody from fighting for every ball: six matches were decided by a single point, among them 17:16, 15:14 and 12:11, and in almost every round at least one court produced a result that was only settled with the very last serve.
From 4:45 pm the buffet was open and the kitchen kept us supplied with drinks all afternoon. Both went down exactly as they should at a birthday party.
The winners
A ranking is hard to avoid when the software is counting anyway. Three players won all five of their matches, so the points difference decided:
- Marvin
- Pavel
- Hanna
That Hanna, who has been co-organising Social Sunday for a year, ended up on the podium herself we take as proof that a year of weekly doubles does no harm. The rest of the top ten: Ajith, Tejas, Matteo, Andreas, Lev, Manus and Nikita.
The trophies were handed out at around 6:20 pm and that was far from the end: whoever felt like it simply kept playing, singles or doubles, whatever suited, until it got dark.
Thank you
A relaxed, cheerful afternoon, praised from all sides and exactly what we had in mind. Thank you to everyone who came, to Bartu at the bar, to Yusuf and Ersin in the kitchen, to Mario Heller for the photos and above all to Hanna and Marlon, who make Social Sunday happen week after week. I was allowed to co-organise and run the tournament this time, everything else is the work of those two.
Social Sunday carries on, of course, every Sunday as usual. In September it will actually turn one and we are already looking forward to celebrating the second birthday with all of you next year.
Want to join in? All current information about Social Sunday, dates, registration and what to bring, is on our Social Sunday page.
Photos
All photos: Mario Heller (marioheller.ch, Instagram). Click to enlarge.
