Unbeaten sides Martinborough and Pirinoa will square off in the feature Wairarapa regional one inter-club tennis match at Martinborough tomorrow. Martinborough have picked up wins over Opaki, Carterton and Masterton, while Pirinoa have beaten Gladstone, Masterton and Opaki. Confidence will be high in the Martinborough camp after their 8-1 win over Mastertonlast weekend, in a match which was expected to be closely contested. As it happened, however, Martinborough dropped just the one singles and seven of their eight wins were secured in straight sets. Pirinoa, on the other hand, scraped past Opaki 5-4, the second week in succession where they had just the one match to spare from their rivals. However, anybody who believes that should make Martinborough firm favourites tomorrow had better think again, as with players of the calibre of Geoff Janse, Mike Jackson, Tim Pickering and Luke Atkinson in their men's section, Pirinoa could go close to making a clean sweep of games there. In fact if former Central Districts rep Leanne Sweeney, who did not play last weekend, is in the Pirinoa line-up on this occasion then the odds would have to favour them taking the overall honours. Gladstone registered their first win for the 2006-07 season when they edged out Carterton 5-4 last weekend, and they will be keen to show that was no fluke with a strong performance against Masterton at Gladstone tomorrow. On paper, Masterton would appear to have the more depth, but Gladstone will lack nothing on the score of experience and that can go a long way in a tight contest. Opaki came within a tiebreaker of beating Pirinoa last weekend and on that basis of that performance they will be the warmest of favourites in their match with Carterton at Opaki.
