Tamai retains doubles title

Shaun Tamai (pictured) retained the men's division 1 title at the Henry Davis Open Round Robin Tennis tournament, this time with Jessie Galvin-Dawson

Rotorua's Shaun Tamai has defended the Rotorua Open Round-Robin Doubles Tennis Tournament he won in 2016 - this time with a different playing partner.

After winning the men's title with Sean Martin last year, Tamai teamed up with Jessie Galvin-Dawson to take out the 2017 title at the weekend.

The No 1 seeds went through unbeaten, as did Rotorua's Beamish brothers Ryan and Nick, who finished second.

The women's division 1 competition proved to be tough for all players with none of the teams going through unbeaten after round-robin play.

Countback saw second seeds Aliya Edwards (Rotorua) and Kalais Going (Mount Maunganui) on 35, with third seeds Leona Kaye-Davis (Rotorua) and Julia Newman (Tauranga) on 31 and Auckland's top seeds Gayleen Carson and Annie Hawaikirangi-Pere on 30.

The annual round-robin competition, in its fifth year, caters for male and female doubles pairs from across the North Island.

Hosted at the Rotorua Tennis Club, more than 50 players competed.

Sponsored by the Henry Davis whanau, the tournament was set up to encourage more local players into the sport.

Kaye-Davis is Henry Davis' daughter and said this year's tournament provided a ''great day of tennis''.

''The hot, sunny day meant players had to dig deep to get through their quota of games given the solid draws that were present with players from Wellington, Auckland, New Plymouth, Taupo, Tauranga and Auckland competing.''

The five divisions comprised three men's and two women's and with players ranging from juniors to masters.