NZ women's No 1 Paige Hourigan returns home to Whanganui to take on men at St Johns Club Junior Open

Hometown girl and NZ No1 ranked women's player Paige Hourigan will take on the men in this weekend's St Johns Club Whanganui Junior Open tournament. Photo / Lewis Gardner

New Zealand No 1 ranked women's tennis player Paige Hourigan will return to her home courts this weekend to compete at the St Johns Club Whanganui Junior Open.

Hourigan will play in the men's singles open division seeded No 2 behind Connor Heap from Christchurch currently ranked No 11 in the country, although an updated version of the rankings may have him higher. Heap has won his last nine matches.

He is no stranger to Whanganui having played in this tournament throughout his early career.

In fact, Heap is a multiple former title winner, although his 2019 open singles victory was in rather bizarre circumstances.

The well-travelled Cantabrian and then University of California-Berkeley student Heap won the final without taking the court.

Heap had been waiting for the winner of the semifinal between Whanganui's returning prodigal son and Paige Hourigan's cousin, Kyle Butters, and highly regarded New Zealand coach Marc Paulik, with Paulik picking up a straight-sets win 6-2 6-1.

However, in the second to last point, Paulik pulled his calf muscle, having to withdraw from the final with injury, handing Heap a default win.

Heap would win a title on the court, however, as he took 13-year-old Jonty Giesen (Manawatu) into the open men's doubles final and upset the local team of Butters and then Whanganui Tennis Club head coach Jono Spring, winning the third tiebreaker set 13-11.

Heap will need all his tennis nous about him this weekend against Hourigan, who is in white-hot form.

Covid-19 has restricted Hourigan's international career, but the Whanganui-born and raised ace has not lost a singles match sanctioned in New Zealand since being beaten 3-6 6-4 7-5 by Valentina Ivanov in the 2018 Pascoes New Zealand Tennis Championships in Auckland. Ivanov from Canterbury is currently ranked No 4 behind Hourigan.

Hourigan's last wins on her home courts at the Whanganui Tennis Club in Nelson St were the coveted women's singles and doubles titles at the 2020 Aotearoa Maaori Championships in December last year.

For the first time in history, one extended family dominated the Aotearoa Maaori Tennis Championship, winning all five open titles on offer at the prestigious tournament.

Hourigan and her Butters family cousins gave visitors no chance in the open sections in the 2020 version of the classic tournament, hosted by their home club for the first time in 93 years.

Hourigan was the first family winner, beating three-time tournament women's singles winner and former top four New Zealand player Lucy Barlow, from Waikato, 6/1 6/1.

Hourigan was in devastating form and followed it by winning the doubles title.

Also playing in the men's singles open is Kapi Mana ace Maria Galatescu from the Tawa Tennis Club. Galatescu is ranked No 33, although that could well be a misleading statistic.

Galatescu has lost only two of her last 17 sanctioned matches. Many of those, however, have been lower grade company than both Hourigan and Heap have been playing in.

The tournament, starting Saturday, will feature the under-10, under-14 and open grades, followed by the under-12 and under-16 grades on Monday and Tuesday of next week.