Ryan Eggers and Rebecca Dellaway won the Otago Indoor Tennis Open titles in contrasting fashion yesterday.
Eggers, seeded third, wore down top seed Paddy Ou 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in a match of several long rallies while Dellaway swept aside her North Otago team mate Nicky Wallace 6-0, 6-4 in a hard hitting contest.
''In the first set I couldn't get my forehand working but as the balls slowed down it helped me,'' Eggers said as he appreciated the new, slower surface which has recently been relaid.
Ou seemed unsure whether to be more aggressive and Eggers prospered as the match lengthened, as has been his traditional style.
In the semifinal, Ou came from behind to ambush Hamish Low, a Nelson student, after trailing 3-5 in the first set.
Ou had received a bye, then a walkover through injury to the semifinal and was lacking in matchplay, but gradually found his mark to win 7-5, 6-3.
Eggers was able to mix up his game and deny Carlos Reid his favourite plays in his semi and took the result 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, cashing in when it mattered as Reid struggled with a back injury.
Eggers had lost their last five encounters.
Dellaway was expected to cruise to her title but struggled to a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 over Fan Ling, from Te Anau, in her first round and was pushed to 7-6, 6-3 by Rileigh Fields.
Meanwhile, Wallace was taken to three sets by Eliza Booth before dismissing Canterbury junior Tess McCann 6-2, 6-2 in her semifinal.
Dellaway was able to restrict her errors a little more than Wallace at the start of the final, though both contributed to an exciting spectacle.
Wallace found her mark more in the second set while Dellaway began to mix in her share of mistakes.
The men's doubles was won by Vaughan Kingi and Patrick Nolan, from Canterbury.
They emerged unbeaten from the round-robin series and were too sharp around the net for their young Otago opponents.
Debby Stevens and Heike Cebulla-Elder repeated their Otago Open success of last season when they dominated Wallace and Emma Maxwell 6-0, 6-1 in the women's final.
