Zack Watson in play at the Selection Eights in October
Day two of the 2023 Solomon Trophy test between the U.S. and Great Britain saw the first round of singles split at 3-3 to keep the overall score deadlocked at 5-5. Playing at the Sarasota County Coquet Club (SCCC) in Venice, Florida, Team USA jumped out fast on Friday winning the first game in five out of the six matches.
Matthew Essick was the only U.S. player on the losing end falling to Alain Giraud. But their second game ended first and Essick was able to equalize. Zack Watson followed by closing his match with Debbie Lines 2-0 and Ben Rothman finish to defeat Gabrielle Higgins 2-0 to push the test score to 4-2 in favor of Team USA.
However, the British team was still working on tightening things up. Stephen Mulliner leveled with Tom Balding with a 26tp-9 score in their second game. Mark van Loon followed that to equaliz against Kyle Maloof with a 26-16 win and Stephen Mulliner leveled with Tom Balding with a 26tp-9 score in their second game. Mulliner kept it going in the decider and won 26tpo-14 and the test score tighted at 4-3.
Giraud then finished 26-0 against Essick and the test reached briefly reached 4-4. Morgan closed out Aston Wade 2-0. The last game of the day saw Mark van Loon complete his comeback against Maloof with 26-23 score to deadlock the test at 5-5.