Martinborough’s Matt Nicholson won a vital three-setter over Opaki’s Brett Dymond. PHOTO/JADE CVETKOV
TENNIS
CHRIS COGDALE
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Martinborough are the Gawith Shield champions winning a tense battle with Opaki 6-3 on Saturday.
Martinborough went into the Regional One Interclub Tennis final at the Masterton Tennis Centre on the back of an 8-1 victory over Opaki the previous weekend, but without their regular number one man Chris Wilkie, who had been in almost unbeatable form this season.
The victory was set up in the singles, which Martinborough won 4-2.
Martinborough captain Marco de Groot easily won the battle of the number one men, dispatching Chris Davidson 6-0, 6-1.
Matt Nicholson prevailed in a tight three-setter over Brett Dymond, coming from a set down to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Duncan Oakley and Stu Wyeth registered the first wins for Opaki. Oakley defeated Steve Chapman 7-5, 6-3, and Wyeth beat Mike Jones 6-2, 5-7, 6-0.
Martinborough dominated the women’s singles. Rona Lovell was too good for Gerry Brooking, winning 6-4, 6-3, and Carla Didsbury had a straight sets victory, 6-4, 6-2 over Belinda Day.
That left Martinborough only needing one win in the doubles to win the championship. They achieved that when Lovell and Didsbury completed a 2-0 [7-5, 7-5] victory over Brooking and Day.
De Groot and Nicholson defeated Davidson and Dymond 7-6, 6-2, while Oakly and Jon McNab pulled one back for Opaki with a 6-2, 6-4 defeat of Jones and Ed Wilkie.
The victory saw Martinborough do the double for the season, having also won the Shirley Corlett Trophy for the pre-Christmas championship.
De Groot was full of praise for his team, but he also said it was “all credit to Opaki” for the way they fought back after the previous weekend’s big loss.
“It was really good tennis all round and both teams can proud of the way they played” he said.
The Regional Two championship was won 3-0 by Masterton over Opaki Red.
Peter Hampson had a 2-0 [6-4, 7-6] victory over Richie Day, and Quentin Kauika defeated Anthony Huxford 6-2, 7-6. With the championship secured, the doubles were not played.
