Teenage sisters take doubles title in style

Wanganui tennis has two new sets of doubles champions including a pair of young ladies emulating the Williams sisters.

After a long four days of matches the Wanganui Tennis Club doubles championships reached their climax at the Bassett St courts with both the semifinals and playoffs back-to-back yesterday afternoon.

In the A Grade women's draw, favourites and No1 seeds Paris Butters and Sandra Glennie fell in their semifinal against the Hiri sisters as Dana, 16 and Gabrielle, 14, held the match 6-3, 6-2.

The Hiri sisters took that momentum into the finals against Sally Caseley and Aimee Musson, who had the advantage of playing their semifinal on Saturday - a 7-5 6-4 win over Helen Russel and Paula Fore.

Backing up was no problem for the Hiri girls, who had the edge throughout their 6-3 6-0 win in the final.

Both men's semifinals turned into long wars of attrition with club captain Lynn Dent acknowledging a lot of tennis had to be played to get a result.

A runner-up in the doubles last year, Michael O'Callahan was a late entry with partner Ben Pilet and they had to play an extra game in the draw to make the semis.

Their luck ran out against Paul Cornish and Martin Sosnowsky, who prevailed in a tight tiebreak 2-6 7-6 (10-4).

Across court from them, Doug Ireton and Paul Rayner eventually saw off Ivon Southon and Craig Davey 6-3 1-6 (10-4).

Ireton and Rayner proved to have the most left in the final, winning 6-3 6-1 although the games were closer than the match score suggests.

The B Grade finals were made up of teams beaten earlier in the qualifiers.

Rachel Cronin and Mary Stobb won the women's while Patrice Maphey and Chris Ferguson took out the men's grade, both games in straight sets.

Next up for the club is the singles championships in a couple of weeks.