An exciting weekend of tennis saw the Soffe Cup semi-finalists decided and Taranaki just went down to Manawatu 14-10.
 

The last round of Soffe Cup tennis saw some tight tussles take place; the tightest of these being the fixture between South Combined and Pukekura down in Hawera.  Pukekura won the tie by a single game, 132 games to 131 after the matches and sets left the teams even.  The match South Combined will probably be thinking got away from them was the men’s top doubles.  Pukekura’s Mike Erb and Mark Belcher managed to win the deciding tie-breaker 10-3 over Hamish Mead and Mark Laurence.  Had this tie break fallen the other way, the tie would have gone to South Combined.  This means South Combined will not feature in the semi-finals.
 

Stratford hosted Oakura and lost a tight tussle 9-7.  It was the dominance of Oakura’s men, pitted against the dominance of Stratford’s women.  At the end of the doubles and singles, the tie was all locked up at six matches apiece.  Oakura chose to switch their two and three women around in the combines and play them out of order.  The risk paid off and Oakura picked up three out of the four combines to claim the victory.
 

Huatoki played away against Rotokare and were soundly beaten 13-3.  It was great to see the return of Jayden Harrison in the number one spot for Huatoki.  Unfortunately for Harrison, the well-drilled Will Roberts was too much and claimed a 6-3 6-4 victory.  This set the tone for the day with just the two combines going the way of Huatoki.
 

This means Pukekura will host Huatoki in one semi-final and Oakura will host Rotokare in the other.
 

In the Wilson Trophy, Inglewood versus South Combined was rained out, Oakura defaulted to Rotokare and Pukekura beat Waitara 14-2 at home.  This means Inglewood will host Rotokare in one semi-final and Pukekura will host Oakura in the other.
 

In the Sumpter Trophy, South Combined beat Oakura 16-0 at home and Pukekura Park beat Huatoki 10-6 at Huatoki.  This means South Combined will play Huatoki at Manaia in one semi-final and Pukekura will host Oakura in the other.
 

In other tennis news, a Taranaki A and B team took on Manawatu’s A and B team.  In the A competition, Taranaki lost 14-10.  Whilst this is disappointing it must be noted that six of the matches Taranaki lost were in three sets.  The B team enjoyed a far more successful day, running out winners 20-4.  It is always encouraging to see a large volume of juniors playing for the representative side as they still have their best tennis in front of them for the province.