Quality was on show at successful tournament

A small Men’s Open field still yielded a high quality final in the New Plymouth Tennis Open, which took place at Rotokare, Huatoki and Pukekura Park Tennis Clubs.

Jaden Grinter and Michael McGlinchey, both from Wellington, battled hard to claim the title. The surface was very slick to begin with and both players found it impossible to break serve.

Finally, in the eighth game, Grinter overcame the McGlinchey serve for a 5-4 lead. Grinter consolidated this break by holding serve and claiming the first set. The second set saw Grinter jump out to an early lead which McGlinchey was never able to pull back. Grinter claimed the second set and the New Plymouth Open title in the process, 6-2.

The ladies’ singles also saw a tight start that built into a comfortable second-set victory. Nikayla Barnard won out over Naomi Burwell 6-4 6-1.

The B-grade men’s draw saw Ha¯wera’s Grant Morris take on Meto Snegirev. Morris outlasted Snegirev to claim the title 6-4 2-6

7-5. Snegirev did everything he could to claw back from a 5-0 deficit in the final set but could not quite complete a miraculous comeback. Snegirev could take some solace from the B-grade doubles which he won with Ray Teunissen

6-7(6) 6-2 6-4.

The 10s boys was dominated by Wellington’s Aston BurwellGarratt. He took out the singles with a dominant 4-1 4-0 win over Taranaki’s Henry Moffat. BurwellGarratt then combined with Tiago Shaw to win the doubles as well, defeating Moffat and his partner Charlie Broadmore.

In the 10s girls Emma Roberts was too strong for the rest of the field, beating Alicia Nobbs 4-1 4-1.

The 16s boys proved to be a twohorse race. The final match of the round robin decided who would be champion. Anthony Ye Cheng Cater edged out a valiant Jordan Whittleston to claim the title 7-6 (3)

6-4. However, Whittleston teamed with fellow Taranaki local Sammy Lewis to claim the doubles.

In the 18s boys Daniel Wilkinson overcame Matthew Evans 6-3

6-2. At the time of writing the 12s and 14s boys’ and girls’ competitions had not been completed.