Martinborough’s Ed Wilkie won his singles over Opaki Red’s Mike Jackson. PHOTOS/FILE
TENNIS
CHRIS COGDALE
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Martinborough One’s prospects in the Wairarapa interclub pre-Christmas championship have taken a hit with their second loss in two outings.
With the top two teams after the round-robin to progress to the Shirley Corlett Trophy final, the experienced team of Chris Wilkie and Marco de Groot will probably have to rely on other results going their way to make it to the decider.
Friday’s victors were Masterton Blue, who completed a clean sweep, but had to work hard in all three matches.
Boon Huxtable needed a second set tiebreaker to beat Chris Wilkie 6-3 7-6, and Rhys Hooper also needed a second set tiebreaker in his 6-4 7-6 win over de Groot.
Huxtable and Hooper didn’t drop a game in winning the first set in the doubles before losing the second set 4-6. That forced the match to a super tiebreaker, which Masterton won 11-9.
Opaki Red scored their first points in the championship with a 2-1 victory over Martinborough Two.
The number one singles went Martinborough’s way with Ed Wilkie beating Mike Jackson 7-5 4-6 10-5 before Ben Riwai-Couch evened the tie with a 7-6 3-6 12-10 defeat of Mike Jones.
The doubles also went to a super tiebreaker with Opaki taking the honours 10-8.
In the women’s competition, Martinborough Two wrapped up the points in the singles against Masterton.
Francesca Wells easily accounted for Netia Morison 6-1 6-4, and Gabrielle Nicholson came from a set down to beat Hilda Holman 1-6 6-4 10-5. Masterton won the doubles by default.
In this Friday’s fixtures, the Opaki Red and Black teams will host the two Martinborough sides and Masterton Blue take on Thistle Building Opaki.
Martinborough One play their Number Two team, and Martinborough Three play Masterton in the women’s championship.
