South African Craig Giddy set tongues wagging on day one of the new-look Hawke's Bay premier men's tennis competition at Napier's Onekawa courts on Saturday.
Giddy, 42, who has been in the Bay for nine months working as a professional coach, was one of two unbeaten No1s and guided his Jeff Gray Land Rover Team Giddy to a 5-1 win against Rowe Light Team Cooper. During his 7-5, 6-1 singles win against Reuben Cooper, Giddy did enough to suggest he could more than rattle the province's top two men, Luke Donovan and Shane Wilson, later in the Hawke's Bay Today Cup competition.
However Giddy didn't want to get too carried away with his own form afterwards and preferred to throw the kudos the way of his entire squad.
"It was a good team effort and didn't our road runner do well," Giddy said referring to former Hawke's Bay Magpies rugby flanker Hugh Reed, who was a late replacement for his side.
Playing at No4, Reed beat his Rowe Light Team Cooper opponent, Hawke's Bay under-14s representative Jacob Verhoeven, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. Reed's Napier Technical premier rugby teammate Tipene Cottrell recorded Team Cooper's only victory, beating former Hawke's Bay Unicorns rugby league representative Mike Hunia 7-5, 6-4.