A marathon three-set win to Mitchell Sizemore over Ryan Eggers was the feature of the first round of Dunedin men's club tennis on Saturday.
Sizemore (St Clair) won 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 in nearly three hours, several times coming back from seemingly being down and out, using controlled aggression to overcome the renowned fighting qualities of his older rival, and finishing strongly.
After being behind a service break, Sizemore had levelled to 6-all in the second set and then ran away with the tiebreak 7-2.
He then promptly fell behind in the third set and trailed until he caught up again at 5-all.
His control and pressure, especially through his powerful forehand, began to tell as the balls got lighter, and he ran through the last two games comfortably despite missing an easy smash to end it earlier.
Sizemore's efforts could not produce a win for his new club, however, and Eastern Harbour took a countback win by eight sets to six, after both teams won three rubbers.
Henry Hailes and Lachie Kenneally were singles winners for Harbour and Eggers and Christiaan Faber won the top double.
Tony Ryder had won his singles in three sets and partnered Robin Versteeg to a doubles win for St Clair's other points.
Other tie winners were Taieri, which beat Balmacewen Federer 5-1, and the tertiary team, which beat Balmacewen Djokovic 6-0.
Taieri's Darryl Paterson dismissed newcomer Shane Kennan 6-1, 6-2 in the No1 singles.
The only success for Balmacewen went to Nic Cutfield, who beat Phil Williams 6-3, 6-4.
The other rubbers resulted in easy wins for the plainsmen.
Details were not provided for the other tie, but Balmacewen, by entering two teams to avoid a bye, found itself struggling for depth.
The possible addition of Otago No2 Carlos Reid to Taieri would further affect competition balance.
