Otago heads to the South Island open team event in Christchurch today with the realistic aim of beating Canterbury Country and Tasman and hoping to ask questions of clear favourite Canterbury Town.
The tournament has been introduced to the calendar with a view to keeping up involvement in the off-season, and using a three-day weekend allows more ties to be fitted in at a time when the programme is not as busy.
Canterbury Town is led by national top-10 ranked James Meredith, who recently took world top-40 doubles player and Davis Cup member Michael Venus to 6-4 in the third set.
The Otago men, all aged from 18 to 22, do have slightly higher national rankings than their Country and Tasman counterparts but they will not be able to slip up too often, as the Otago women have been weakened by several defections, leaving only Rileigh Fields as a regular Otago A representative.
The format involves five men's singles and three women's singles as well as two men's doubles, one women's doubles and a mixed doubles, so the onus will be on Aaron Hicks, Mitchell Sizemore, Paddy Ou, Ryan Eggers and Carlos Reid to hold up their end.
Replacement women Heike Cebulla-Elder and Ilana Goossens were part of the successful Otago B team which won division two of the Southern League, but will have to defy the rankings if they are to record an individual win.
Play starts this afternoon when Otago plays Canterbury Country.
Tasman is the opponent tomorrow and the Canterbury Town fixture begins tomorrow Sunday with doubles and is completed on Anzac Day.
