Experience will count for little in the final of the regional one men's singles final when the Shoe Clinic Wairarapa closed tennis championships draw to a close at the Masterton Tennis Centre next weekend.
The two combatants, Matt Spooner (Carterton) and Luke Atkinson (Masterton), are both well served with thatimportant commodity, having rated among the province's top players for a number of years.
Spooner, who has also played at the top level in Wellington, justified his top seeding with comfortable wins in his preliminary round games on Saturday but it wasn't all plain sailing for second seed Atkinson who was forced to a tiebreaker in the second set of his encounter with clubmate Matt Bunny.
The men's regional one plate final will be between John McNab of Opaki and Alistair McWilliam of Gladstone and they had to fight to get that far. McNab won a third set tiebreaker 12-10 against the luckless Bunny and McWilliam had to go through the same process before beating Opaki's Chris Davidson.
It's still early days in the doubles with a number of games still to be played but the smart money would be on the final featuring Matt Spooner and Chris Schofield against Luke Atkinson and Tim Pickering.
There is also plenty of action to come in the regional one women's singles where the top seed is Katie Wyeth of Opaki. She is scheduled to play talented Masterton youngster Georgia Atkinson midweek and then will face two other up-and-comers in Brigette Needham and Dushka Warren next Saturday.
Atkinson, for her part, will spend next weekend contesting the girls 12yrs section at the Tennis Central Masters tournament which counts towards selection for the Tennis Central national tournament age group sides. Her sister, Sade, will be in the girls 16yrs event.
Meantime the final of the regional two men's singles singles at the Wairarapa closed championships promises to be a battle royal between the two top seeds, Peter Hampson of Masterton and Jamie McMaster of Wairarapa College. The plate final will feature Rathkeale College duo Johnty Tatham and Ben Wilkinson while the doubles title looks headed the way of Hampson and Colin Gillot.
