The new Cosy Dell men's team made a statement on the first day of Dunedin premier club tennis on Saturday, as it beat defending champion Eastern Harbour 5-1. The Cosy Dell team is made up of four tertiary students and includes a former national junior doubles titleholder in Nick Hornstein at No 1.
He was impressive in downing long-time Otago representative Phil Mirfin 6-3, 6-1. Followers wondered what might have been if Campbell Higgins, the Harbour No 1, had been available, as he was away at a coaching qualification course.
Nelson representative Alex Low came back from a set down to beat Southern junior player Ryan Eggers 6-1, 6-2 in the next two sets and hinted that, with more matches, he will be a handful for future opponents.
James Leggatt, a Canterbury junior rep in previous years, gave up only one game to Mike Smith and Chris McKewg, a Wellington player, beat Mayuresh Prasad in straight sets. Harbour's only success was in the top doubles, where Mirfin and Eggers took a third set tiebreak.
Taieri beat Mornington-Roslyn 4-2 when they took both doubles. Andrew Mitchell and Daniel Kim won important singles, but both teams will struggle if they cannot recruit further in coming weeks.
The Balmacewen-McGlashan tie, which was to feature several new leading players from other provinces, was postponed because of the coaching course.
The feature of the women's competition was the individual effort by Jessie Stevenson to outlast Canterbury student Heidi Blackburne in a battling 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 result for Balmacewen Gems against Balmacewen Diamonds. However this was the only success for her team.
Another feature match saw Georgia Hume (Eastern Harbour), who now has an ITF junior world ranking, pushed hard by Southlander Scarlett Cuthill (St Clair) before taking a 6-3 third set. Harbour won all the other rubbers in straight in straight sets.
Mornington-Roslyn won all six against a young Taieri team and dropped only one set in the top double along the way.
