The Eastern Harbour men sent out a warning as finals approach when they battled to a 5-1 win over Mornington-Roslyn Black in Dunedin club tennis on Saturday.
The return of Campbell Higgins was key for Harbour, as he led from the top in beating Oliver Cuthill 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. Cuthill, the No1 for Southland, had won all his representative matches last weekend, while Higgins had returned from Tauranga to play at No2 for Otago.
However, Higgins looked the sharper and moved better as Cuthill became increasingly frustrated in the third set. Higgins often ran around his backhand to deliver a rally-winning shot from his main weapon, a flashing forehand.
All Harbour's wins were closely fought affairs. Philip Mirfin beat Oliver Reid 6-4, 7-5, while Ryan Eggers took close to three hours to wear down Oliver Scott 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, after being down 5-6 and 30-love in the second set.
Dimitar Trifunowski also needed a 7-5 third set to beat Adam Williams and Harbour's top doubles pair were taken to a third-set tiebreak. Mornington-Roslyn's only success was the bottom double, won by Scott and Williams 6-3, 6-3.
Mornington-Roslyn Blue raced to a 6-0 straight-sets clean sweep over Taieri. In the top single, Shaun Paringatai beat Andrew Mitchell 6-3, 6-4 in a match of many exciting rallies.
Some new faces were added to the women's competition, but there were more players either injured or required for school sports teams. Only one of the top six Otago players from last week was on display.
Eastern Harbour beat St Clair 3-0. Newcomer Kirsten McDonald, from Christchurch, looked useful in beating Lauren Fowler 6-4, 6-4.
Jessie Stevenson and Pauline Hobbhahn led Balmacewen to a 3-0 win over a depleted Harbour-Country.
