Tennis: Eastern seniors capture Rose Bowl after emphatic wins

Rob Reynolds was unbeaten in his final outings for Eastern before heading to Germany. Photo / File

Tennis Eastern development officer Sean Davies had every right to be buzzing last night.

His region's senior team captured the Tennis Waikato Bays Rose Bowl Quadrangular trophy after two convincing 8-1 wins at the weekend - against defending champions Bay of Plenty and Waikato Thames Valley at the Greendale club.

Both matches were played on Saturday and yesterday's rain forced the fixture against Western Bay of Plenty to be abandoned.

"We had two emphatic wins which surprised us. Our women were particularly impressive," Davies said.

Eastern's No 1 woman of the host club, Jane Wyllie, and No 2 Fiona Tyler, of Central Hawke's Bay, were both unbeaten. Eastern's only women's loss came in the No 2 doubles against Bay of Plenty when Greendale's Victoria Kerrison and Hawke's Bay Lawn's Barbara Baker were beaten 6-0, 6-2 by Aliya Edwards and Leona Davis-Kaye.

Eastern's only men's loss came when the No 2 doubles combination of Greendale's Albert Hailes and Hastings Rynold Timothy were beaten 7-6, 6-3 by their Waikato Thames Valley counterparts Jack Guilford and Luke Hamilton. Hailes and Timothy were making their debuts for the Eastern team at the weekend.

Davies was rapt with the manner in which Eastern's top two men, Hawke's Bay Lawn's Rob Reynolds and Greendale's Luke Donovan, dealt with their respective Waikato Thames Valley opponents Rob and Paul McArdle. The McArdles are English imports and boast the same S2 grading as Reynolds, who was ranked among the country's top eight players earlier this year.

Reynolds beat Rob McArdle 6-1, 6-1 and Donovan beat Paul McArdle 1-6, 6-1, 10-3.
Donovan and McArdle beat the McArdles 6-4, 6-2. Reynolds beat his Bay of Plenty opponent Shaun Tamai 6-2, 6-2.

Davies and his fellow Eastern officials can be proud of the Eastern team's displays this season. In addition to the weekend's title they won the triangular tournament against Taranaki and Manawatu and drew their Christie Cup challenge against Manawatu 12-all.

For Reynolds, the weekend's success was the ideal send-off. Later this month he travels to Germany to begin his quest to go professional.