Last year's men's finalists in the Dunedin club competition, Cosy Dell and Eastern Harbour, remain unbeaten after the second round and are set to be joined by McGlashan Red which is well on the way with a 3-1 lead in an unfinished tie.
Another feature of this weekend's play was the number of new tertiary students in the first round of the women's competition.
Cosy Dell men appreciated the return of top Nelson player Alex Low, who dominated Thomas McCabe 6-2, 6-2 at No 1 and led his team to a 5-1 win over Mornington-Roslyn.
The only winner for Mornington was George Wigley, a former leading junior in Canterbury, originally from Timaru. He outlasted James Leggett, from Marlborough 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 in a marathon affair.
George Milne, a student from Hutt Valley, was again impressive in his two wins for Cosy Dell.
Eastern Harbour has a new find in Aucklander Aaron Hicks, who beat Matt White (Balmacewen) without the loss of a game.
Ryan Eggers almost needed his customary three-setter, being down 5-2 in the first set, before coming back to win 7-6.
In the second set, he was down 5-1 and set points before winning 7-5 against James Bourne (Balmacewen).
After Harbour won all four singles, Balmacewen fought back to win both doubles in third-set tiebreaks to limit the damage and take bonus points.
The tie between the two McGlashan teams was affected by representative rugby commitments, but Paddy Ou and Mitchell Sizemore dominated the lower order for the Red team to gain a 3-1 lead.
Kyu Kim provided the best fight of the season so far when he pushed Otago Open titleholder, and national junior rep, Harry James, to a stern 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 test in the top single.
The first round of women's play resulted in tight wins to St Clair and Mornington-Roslyn.
In the match of the day, Eastern Harbour's Georgia Rooney finally beat Scarlett Cuthill (St Clair) 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 in a hard- hitting suspenseful contest.
However, Rakhee Raghunandan beat Alexia Foster-Bohm and combined with Cuthill to claim a 10-8 win in the final-set doubles tiebreak.
Mornington-Roslyn also needed the third-set doubles tiebreak to confirm their 2-1 win over Balmacewen after the singles were shared.
Nicky Wallace and Georgia Scott beat Polly Withers and Annabel Eckroyd 4-6, 7-6, 10-5 in the decisive rubber.
