With all eyes on returning a forehand during the Mid Canterbury Tennis A grade competition on Saturday was Aidan Mitchell. Photo Robyn HoodTinwald remain the frontrunners to take out round two of this summer’s Mid Canterbury Tennis A grade competition after just sneaking past Southern in Saturday’s latest round.

Heading into the third match-ups of round two Tinwald held a slender four-point lead over first round winners Allenton, but with Allenton suffering a narrow loss to Fairton, Tinwald are now in the box seat.

Tinwald’s 4-2 win over Southern was set up by wins in both of the doubles matches, with the four singles matches shared.

In the top doubles, Peter Leonard and Cameron McCracken combined to make a formidable combination which proved far too good for Southern’s Jason Feutz and Gareth Evans, winning 6-1 6-0.

Ashleigh Leonard and Larissa Allan beat Aidan Watt and Mathieu Lucas 6-3 6-3 in the bottom doubles.

McCracken’s stellar singles season continued with a 6-1 6-1 win over Feutz, while Ashleigh Leonard took the number two spot for the singles and lost to Evans in a third set super tie-breaker.

Southern’s second win came in the three singles in another super tie-break, with Watt beating Allan, while Tim Groves came into the Tinwald side for the number four singles and beat Lucas 6-2 6-3.

Tinwald only winning 4-2 meant if Allenton could win big, they could narrow the gap on the leaderboard, but Fairton had other ideas and moved into second spot after holding the round one winners to a 3-all draw on matches and then winning on a countback of games 54-50.

Wins were hard to come by for Fairton in round one, but they were on fire on Saturday, taking out both of the doubles matches.

Rhys Cromie and Neil Fowler combined to win the top doubles for Fairton, beating Andre van Rooyen and Bryn Looij 6-4 6-3, while Phil Crozier and John Leslie also took a win for Fairton, beating Matt Bubb and Jacob Pye 6-2 6-3.

Other than Cromie’s 6-1 6-0 win over van Rooyen in the top singles, the singles matches belonged to Allenton.

Fowler was making his first appearance in A grade tennis in some time and he lost his singles to Looij 6-2 6-4 at two, while Bubb beat Crozier 6-4 6-1 at three, and Pye beat Leslie 7-5 6-2 at four.

The day’s other match-up between Hampstead and Methven was won by Hampstead 4-2, and just like in the other two matches it was a win set up by wins in both doubles matches.

Aidan Mitchell and Connor Brosnahan ook out their top doubles against Lee Gilbert and Pete Kirwan 6-2 6-1, while Michael Kerr and Erin Connelly-Whyte beat Josh Jones and Marty Amos 6-4 6-2 in the bottom doubles.

Jones and Amos turned the tables completely in the singles matches though, with Jones downing Matthew Hopkins in the three singles 6-1 6-4 and Amos beating Connelly-Whyte 6-4 6-1 at four.

Hampstead wrapped the tie up at the top of the order, with Mitchell beating Gilbert 6-0 6-3 in the top singles, and Brosnahan beating Kirwan in a third set super tie-break.

Meanwhile in A reserve action on Saturday the Allenton Wekas beat the Allenton Kakapos 6-0 and Hampstead just edged out Southern/Wakanui on a countback of games 52-49.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 3 February 2019