Soffe Cup semifinalists ready for weekend battle

The last round of Soffe Cup tennis was completed last Saturday and the semifinal spots are now locked in for this weekend.

Huatoki travelled down to Stratford and came out easy winners.

Inglewood was at the Midhirst courts playing Okaiawa and squeezed the narrowest of victories.

Rotokare was too strong for Oakura and came out on top.

Huatoki, with their new number one Diego Quispe-Kim, proved too strong for Stratford, running out winners 14 matches to two.

However, the men’s bottom doubles did produce a classic battle, with Stratford’s Bruce Cleland and Grant Kite just managing to hold their nerve a little better than Huatoki’s Ross Lilley and Shane Douglas to come out victorious 4-6, 6-4, 7-6.

A satisfying end to the season for Huatoki, which will be left wondering what might have been had a player like Quispe-Kim been available from the beginning of the season.

Inglewood managed a stellar victory over Okaiawa.

Okaiawa was a woman short and ultimately this told at the end of the day when the overall result came down to a countback.

After the singles Okaiawa led 5-3.

All seemed to be going to plan but Inglewood had other ideas. Inglewood claimed three of the four doubles rubbers on offer to even the score up 6-6.

With the overall victory on the line, the last match was a tightly fought affair between Inglewood’s Michael Gibbins and Alex Kalin and Okaiawa’s Ricky Clement and Marissa Clough.

Clement and Clough managed to hold their nerve and force an overall countback with a win 9-8.

The countback of sets left the sides locked at 17-17, but the game tally saw Inglewood ahead 143 games to 123.

Rotokare took on Oakura in Oakura.

Rotokare proved too strong for an under-strength Oakura, running out winners 11-5.

This was a tie that seemed like teams having already made the semifinals and being ready to play the next week was more important than playing the last round.

It will be interesting to see who is available to play for both sides this weekend.

The semifinal matchups will be Rotokare at home facing Okaiawa and Pukekura at home playing Oakura.