PHOTO
High-profile guest players claimed the major honours at the Otago Open at the Edgar Centre on Saturday.
However, New Zealand representatives John Cordue (men's singles) and Sarah Her-Lee (women's singles) took rather different paths to their respective titles.
Her-Lee, an Aucklander who plays semiprofessionally in Germany, cruised to victory in the open women's section.
She produced some devastating form to beat Cath Zhou, of Wellington, 11-7, 11-4, 11-9, 11-5 in the final. Her-Lee was not bothered by Zhou's service game and dominated the match with consistent attack.
Cordue, also from Auckland, had a real battle on his hands, with a fired-up Oliver Scarlett throwing everything at him in the men's final. The crowd was treated to long rallies and fast looping from a considerable distance back from the table.
Scarlett, another Aucklander, was able to apply pressure by attacking, before Cordue took control of the match, calling on his international experience to grind out a 10-12, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-6 win.
In the semifinals, Cordue beat fourth-seeded Jonathan Wang. Scarlett had a tussle with Ben Duffy, of Otago, but showed enough consistency to win.
Both Cordue and Her-Lee told organisers they were keen to return to the event, which attracted nearly 100 players and was described by Otago great John Fogarty as the best Otago Open he had seen.
Cordue and Her-Lee won the mixed doubles title, overcoming a spirited challenge from Duffy and Zhou. Duffy and Zhou led 2-0 and had match point, but Cordue and Her-Lee survived and eventually ground out a 3-2 victory.
Duffy and Andrew Marr reached the open doubles final before being beaten by Canterbury's Simon Fenwick and Matthew Hetherington.
Duffy consoled himself with three over-30 titles: singles, doubles (with Marr) and mixed doubles (with Zhou).
Lucy Paton, of North Otago, was the star turn in under-15, with victories in the singles, doubles (with Laura Geraghty) and mixed doubles (with Josh Tonkin).
The Xu brothers, Logan and Nathan, of Dunedin, won under-13 doubles.
Logan added the under-13 singles title and teamed with Berdy Fang, of Canterbury, to win the under-15 doubles.