The 8-1 scoreline would suggest that Carterton had a straightforward win over Opaki in their Wairarapa Regional One fixture on Thursday night.
The result, however, was somewhat flattering for the defending champions, who were pushed all the way with six tight matches, including four third-set super tiebreakers, all won by Carterton.
Opaki made the best start to the fixture, claiming the first set in all three doubles matches, only to falter in the latter stages.
Opaki’s Chris Davidson and Brett Dymond had three match points in the second set over Matt Spooner and Josh Hutchings but were unable to convert, and the Carterton pair went on to win 3-6 7-6 10-7.
William Day and Rudo Erasmus made it two from two in the men’s doubles beating Duncan Oakley and Richie Day 5-7 6-0 10-8, while German exchange student Mara Beyerle and Elizabeth Whitaker took out the only women’s doubles 6-7 6-2 10-7 over Katie Alsop and Belinda Day.
In the singles, Oakley was his usual nuggety self for Opaki and came within a couple of points of toppling William Day, who kept his unbeaten singles record for the season intact 6-3 4-6 13-11.
Spooner eased away from Chris Davidson after a tight start, winning 6-4 6-0, Hutchings outlasted Dymond 7-5 7-5, and William Orsborn exacted revenge over Richie Day after losing to him earlier in the season, winning 6-4 7-5.
The women’s top rubber held plenty of interest as Alsop has only lost one singles match since 2010 [in 2015 to Georgia Atkinson] and has been the best player in the region for some time.
Carterton opted to play Beyerle in the women instead of the men as they were short on women. The German teenager showed how incredibly talented she is by winning without dropping a game, although there were plenty of excellent rallies.
Belinda Day was the only winner for Opaki, dispatching Elizabeth Whitaker 6-1 6-2.
Opaki play Martinborough in this weekend’s round.
