The tennis equivalent of T20 cricket, with shortened matches and sudden death points, is being introduced for the Wairarapa Tennis pre-Christmas Interclub competition, which gets underway at Carterton tomorrow.
The tournament-style format replaces the two-person competition that has been played over recent seasons, with the aim of giving the region’s top players more meaningful competition on a weekly basis.
Each interclub round is to be played as a satellite tournament, with four players from each club playing three matches on the day and earning competition points. The winner of each match will pick up three points, while the loser will walk off the court with one point.
The club with the most points at the completion of the five-week competition will win the Shirley Corlett Trophy.
The big change comes in the duration of the matches, which will be played as the best of three truncated sets to four games. Adding to the rapid-fire nature, players will play a sudden death point at deuce to decide a game.
These tournaments will only feature men because there were insufficient women from the four competing clubs.
An intriguing newcomer in the competition is the Dry River team based at Jacob Emery’s Red Clay Centre, south of Martinborough, and there will be plenty of interest in the performance of their South African coach, Niel Hendriks, who is reputed to be an outstanding player and could prove a handful for the region’s other leading players.
Tomorrow’s opening round at Carterton will be played in two divisions, with Ōpaki’s Boon Huxtable, Chris Wilkie from Martinborough, Carterton’s William Day, and Emery likely to make their presence felt in the top division, while Duncan Oakley [Ōpaki] looks to be the player to beat in the second flight.
Carterton will also host the second round on November 4, with further rounds to be played over consecutive weekends at Dry River, Ōpaki, and Martinborough. Play is scheduled to start at 10am each day.
There will also be a North–South clash scheduled for Saturday, December 9, at Masterton’s Trust House Tennis Centre.
The Gawith Shield interclub competition will be contested in the new year in the traditional four-men, two-women format.
