A round robin format will be used with each team playing the others three times.
The format of each tie will feature four singles matches (three men’s, one women’s) and two doubles matches (one men’s and one mixed) being played.
The first tie was a close battle between Andy Bay Uni and Andy Bay Originals.
In the top men’s match, Marwan Samy (Uni) took on Omar Amir Khir (Originals).
Fresh from his Otago indoor title, Samy’s aggressive baseline game was too much for Khir as Samy won 6-3, 6-1.
Matt Rusher evened it up for the Originals as he used his court craft to get past Jake Gilchrist 6-2, 6-1.
Alex Abadie then made it 2-1 to the Originals when he used his drop shots to get past Angus Colquhoun 6-2, 6-3.
Andy Bay Uni then got a much-needed win as Jenna Bowie got through a close encounter against Heike Cebulla in the women’s match, 7-6, 6-3.
With the tie at 2-2, Samy/Gilchrist beat Khir/Rusher in the match of the tie, 7-5, 6-7(8), 10-8. The former combination made a late comeback after being down 6-1 in the super tiebreak.
With the tie coming down to the last mixed doubles, Mark Pickering/Bowie played a clinical match to give the Originals the tie win on countback, 6-1, 6-3.
The second tie between Balmacewen and Taieri also ended up a close contest.
In the women’s match, Erin O’Neill got Taieri off to a strong start as she beat Billie Fraser 6-2, 7-6.
The top two men’s singles matches went the way of Balmacewen as Hugo Barsby beat Bilal Ahmad 6-2, 6-3 and Saul Moore beat Joshua Joseph 6-1, 6-2.
Fraser Richardson got a crucial win over Eli Newall in the last singles match to give Balmacewen a 3-1 lead.
Coming back from a set down, Richardson found his rhythm to win 1-6, 6-2, 10-6.
With Balmacewen needing to win one of the two doubles matches, Barsby and Moore took care of business as they beat Ahmad/Joseph 6-3, 6-3.
Taieri were able to win the last mixed doubles as Connor Morrison/O’Neill beat Richardson/Fraser 6-3, 6-0.
By Paddy Ou
