The South Island titles at the top level are largely staying in Otago after the South Island championships in Dunedin at the weekend.
The open men's singles went the way of German student Julian Molzberger, who is set to represent Otago at the South Island teams event in Timaru next month.
Molzberger, who is on a student exchange at Otago Polytechnic, beat top seed Craig Dye 4-2, winning the first two games 11-8 and 11-5 before dropping the next two games to Dye.
Molzberger then won the fifth and sixth games to claim the title.
The contest was even closer in the open women's singles, with Jill Liu upsetting unrelated Gina Liu, 4-3.
Jill Liu won the first three games before Gina Liu clawed back the next three games, but Jill Liu prevailed in the deciding game 11-5.
Jill Liu is unavailable for the teams event next month because of university exams.
Otago Table Tennis Association director of coaching and development Ben Duffy, who teamed up with Molzberger to win the open men's doubles, said one particular highlight was local player Tom Henderson's 3-1 defeat of Alex Zhou in the under-18 boys' singles final.
A drought for Willie Brocks ended in the over-50 men's singles, when he toppled John Fogarty for the first time to win that category.
