The chances of Opaki giving defending champions Pirinoa a good run for their money in their Wairarapa regional one tennis match at Pirinoa tomorrow have been dealt a blow.
Unavailable for Opaki is their top woman Katie Wyeth and her absence could be enough to give Pirinoa a winning edge.
With players
of the calibre of Leanne Sweeney and Natasha Robinson to call on Pirinoa have considerable strength in their women's section and they should now dominate both the singles and doubles matches there.
Opaki do have enough strength in their men's section through the likes of Russell Broughton and Brett Dymond to pick up some lost ground but it's doubtful whether it will be enough to pull off what would be a surprise victory.
Gladstone and Carterton will both be coming off the back of narrow 5-4 losses when they play at Gladstone tomorrow, Gladstone to Opaki and Carterton to Martinborough.
The brother-and-sister combination of Baden and Emma Stevenson starred for Gladstone and they should be to the fore again in both singles and doubles play.
If they can pick up all four of their games in those spheres then Gladstone will be well on the way to overall success.
Spearheading the Carterton effort will be Kelly Courtney and Cathy Rolls, both of whom picked up important singles wins against Martinborough.
Masterton have started the season slowly and it's difficult to imagine them causing too much grief for Martinborough in their match at Martinborough.
Marco de Groot and Dan Nicholson will be expected to give Martinborough a flying start in the men's singles while Libby Paterson and Carla Didsbury should do likewise amongst the women.
One Masterton player who won't be lacking confidence though is Matt Bunny whose three-set singles win over Geoff Janse provided the sole victory for them against Pirinoa last Saturday.
