Eastern Harbour claimed the President’s Cup in the final round of Dunedin club tennis on Saturday when it beat its closest rival, St Clair, 4-2.
With the return of the students, the Men’s and Women’s Shield competitions resume after next weekend’s regional teams event.
The key tipping point in Harbour’s win was the 6-3, 6-0 win by Ryan Eggers over the higher-ranked Mitchell Sizemore, the current Otago Open champion and runner-up in last week’s Queenstown Open.
Playing on synthetic grass at a windswept Bayfield Park, while junior representative fixtures were being played at headquarters, Eggers used his renowned touch and variations to upset an out-of-sorts Sizemore.
Sizemore had superior power but this was negated by the conditions, as Eggers was able to run down many balls and have the last say with a deft placement.
The only on-court win for St Clair went to Warren Watson over Shivam Kalhan 7-5, 6-4, while Jeff Elliotte took a default after Lachie Kenneally was held up at the junior fixture.
Eggers and Kenneally continued the upsets when they beat Sizemore and Elliotte in a third-set match tiebreak 10-8.
At Mosgiel, Taieri had to battle long and hard but took a 5-1 win that was more hotly contested than the score suggests.
Nelson student Henry Neas (Balmacewen) took more than three hours to beat newcomer Charlie Tomlinson, former No1 at Auckland Grammar, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6, while Phil Williams and Lucas Walser claimed long three-set wins for Taieri.
The only two-setter went to Carlos Reid, who beat George Alexander, who has returned to Dunedin, 6-4, 6-0.
Both doubles were also marathons but Taieri was able to edge out both, Tomlinson and Reid winning 7-6, 6-4 and Williams and Walser getting home 6-2, 4-6, 7-6.
- Dennis Radford
