Taranaki reps unbeaten

Taranaki’s representative tennis season ended on a victorious note after they won the senior representative hexangular tournament in Wellington.

The weekend started with pool play with Taranaki pooled with Kapi Mana and Manawatu with the other pool featuring Wellington, Hutt Valley and Wanganui.

The first tie saw Taranaki beat Kapi Mana comfortably 9-3. A strong showing from the Taranaki men helped them to an 8-4 win over Manawatu in their second game.

This win meant Taranaki played Wellington in the final after they topped the other pool.

The final started strongly for Taranaki with seven out of eight singles victories to Ajeet Rai, Jordan Fleming, Amrit Rai and Graeme Mitchell in the men’s and Louise Waite, Nikayla Barnard and Chantelle Peters in the women’s.

With the score at 7-1, Taranaki had the final in the bag. The men’s doubles combination of Rai and Fleming won comfortably, however, Barnard and Jackie Keenan went down to the Wellington women pairing of Gretchen Elliott and Gretchen Hore.

Amrit Rai and Mianna Walden were beaten by Luke Piercey and Tom Bolton but the final victory was secured by Graeme Mitchell and Louise Waite over Jaden Grinter and Daisy Leckie.

The team benefited from having Ajeet Rai, the national under-18 champion who is ranked in the top 100 juniors in the world.