Hourigan run out of legs in women's playoff

Paige Hourigan during her doubles game for Wanganui in the defence of the Christie Cup.

While Paige Hourigan was delighted to be home and to play her part in the defence of the Christie Cup, it was tinged with a bit of sadness at the end of a very long week after she narrowly missed the women's singles title at the Pascoes NZ Tennis Champs in Auckland on Saturday.

With New Zealand No1 player Marina Erakovic opting out of the tournament, Hourigan was a favourite but was beaten by Jade Lewis 5-7 6-3 6-1 in a quality final.

Similar to Hourigan and the Butters family, Jade Lewis, who turned 18 yesterday, descends from her own tennis royalty as the niece of former Wimbledon finalist Chris, while her father David and other uncle Mark were former Davis Cup representatives and top coaches.

Hourigan, 19, had come through a tough semifinal, beating Jo Carswell 7-5 7-6 and winning the second set tiebreak 7-1.

In the final she won the first set 7-5 after several breaks of serve, but never looked in control as Lewis finished strongly.

"I just lacked energy. I was up and down, trying to push through and she was grinding it," Hourigan said yesterday.

Hourigan still prospered at the ASB Tennis Centre courts as she teamed with Erin Routliffe, the No1 singles seed who was also beaten by Lewis, to defeat Rosie Cheng and Leela Beattie 6-3 6-2 to win the NZ doubles title.

She was pleased to pick up the championship but regretful it had to be at Beattie's expense, having also defeated her in the singles tournament.

"It was a pity we got each other in the quarters. She's playing good tennis at the moment."

Hourigan will now have a couple of days break with family before seeing if she will receive a wildcard into the ASB Classic.

Then it will be back to America where she is on a tennis scholarship at Georgia Tech.

"I love it [there]. It's awesome, nothing changes."