Otago teens caused a series of upsets at the national 16 and under tennis championships in Hamilton.
Carlos Reid, seeded 13th, won the playoff for third and fourth after beating two higher-seeded players, including the top seed, on his way to the semifinal. Paddy Ou, like his McGlashan and Otago team-mate, lost to the eventual winner, Alex Calder (Wellington), going out in the quarterfinals.
Reid beat Daniel Andonov (Waikato) 6-2, 6-2 in the first round, Luke Taplin (Auckland) 6-1, 6-0 in the second round and caused a major surprise when knocking out top seed Pratt Keerasuntonpong (Auckland) 6-2, 4-6, 1-2 retired in the third round. Reid overcame ninth seed Serge Belov (North Harbour) 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 in a close quarterfinal before going down 6-3, 6-4, to Calder.
Reid bounced back from a 6-0 first-set loss to take the next two, 6-3, 6-4, against yet another higher-seeded player, when he beat Cantabrian Lawrence Darling, the eighth seed, to claim the bronze medal.
After losing many months of tennis to injury and associated medical issues it was a very creditable comeback for the tall, strong schoolboy, who had lived in the shadows of McGlashan team-mates Harry James and Kyu Kim (both now left school) as well as Ou in recent seasons.
Ou, seeded fifth, had a first-round bye, then beat Aucklanders Te Kani Williams 6-3, 6-2 and Dan Cooney 6-3, 6-3 before his loss to fourth seed Calder. He beat Belov 7-5, 6-4 but lost 6-3, 6-2 to Rob Reynolds (Wellington), the second seed, in the playoff for fifth and sixth.
The Otago pair also had a good run in the doubles, beating Calder and Niko Barr 6-3, 6-4 in the second round after a first-round bye, then another Wellington pair, Tyler Titov-Smith and John Vogel, 6-2, 6-0. The latter pair had put out the second seeds earlier. Reid and Ou then lost to the eventual winners, Miki Nobuzawa (Queenstown) and Reynolds, going down 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals.
In the singles, Nobuzawa had won two rounds before losing to Darling in three sets.
