Strong Wairarapa team for tourney

Wairarapa will be fielding what is arguably the best team to ever represent them at the annual quinrangular inter-provincial tennis tournament when that event is staged at Mitchell Park, Lower Hutt this coming weekend.
But while selector Steve Hurley is confident they will be competitive against Hutt Valley, Manawatu, Wellington and defending champions Kapi-Mana he knows a repeat of last year's effort when they placed second the first time they had managed a top two finish could largely depend on the composition of the participating sides.
"You don't really know how strong the opposition is going to be until they actually turn up so it's difficult to predict anything in terms of results."
For instance if Wellington decided to field anything like their number one combination they would pose a far bigger threat then they did 12 months ago & and the same probably applied to Hutt Valley.
"You don't really know how strong the opposition is going to be until they actually turn up so it's difficult to predict anything in terms of results," Hurley said.
Wairarapa's cause has certainly been helped by having one of the country's top-ranked players in Marcus Daniell heading their men's section. He is a phenomenal talent who should be a dominant force in both singles and doubles play.
Daniell's inclusion means the former Wellington rep Jono Hurley will be an almost equally formidable presence at number two in the men's section for Wairarapa and they will be joined by Baden Stevenson, who has been in outstanding form for Gladstone on the club scene, Luke Atkinson, Chris Schofield and Geoff Janse.
In the women's section the poser for Hurley will be who to play where in the singles, as in Emma Stevenson, Katie Wyeth and Leanne Sweeney he has three players who could all do credit to the number one spot. Promising youngster Ashleigh Gane is in the support crew there, along with Natasha Robinson and Jan Wyeth.
With four players involved in the singles in each match and the doubles personnel able to be completely different from that which plays in the singles, astute selection is a prime requirement for success in a competition of this type.
For Hurley than means keeping a close eye on the fitness of his players with the demands of having to perhaps play in one match on Friday night, two on Saturday and one on Sunday afternoon testing their physical resources.
"Somewhere along the line you have to take a few risks with selection and hope you pull the right strings, "Hurley said. "Fortunately we have enough depth to lessen that risk and that could count for a lot in the end."