Tempers fly at Hutt junior tennis

Press, 22 December 1978, Page 20

Tempers fly at Hutt junior tennis

' PA Wellington I Seeded players tumbled amid tempers and tantrums! at the Hutt Valley junior! tennis tournament at Mit-1 chell Park yesterday. The fiery young Aucklan-! der, Mark Lewis, was de? faulted when he refused to return to the court to con-! tinue his game against Step-1 hen Smith. I The game was tied at one! set each and one game each! when the players left the i court because of rain. The' third-seeded Lewis and! sixth-seeded Smith (Auck-! land) were cleared to con-! tinue shortly after but both! players protested that the! court was too slippery. Lewis was finally disqualified. The second-seeded Kelly Evernden (Poverty Bay) walked off the court and defaulted his game to Auckland’s Bruce Derlin. , Evernden, it was later said, was injured. However, when he left the court he was a service game away . from defeat from the eighth- i

| seeded Derlin, having los (the first set. 4 5 6, and trail ing, 3-5, in the second. With the top seed, Janie. ; Dunphy (Lower Hutt) on thi 'brink of defeal in a game ti !be continued today, selectioi I for the New Zealand tean ! has been thrown into tun moil. I Dunphy trailed Gran ! Cowie (Waikato) the seventt ! seed. 0-3, in the third se i after sharing one set each Wellington’s David Patter Ison, who was seeded fourth 1 was the highest-ranked play ler to get through to thi ; semi-finals, beating the un ■seeded Rhett Mason (Canter; ! bury), 6-2, 6-2. ' In the unden!9 girls sec I tion, matters were mon clear cut. with the Aucklan ders Bronwyn Corson ant Arleen Rolleston, setting th, pace. Rolleston will meet Ann Davidson in today’s semi-final while Corson will play Gay Robinson. The New Zealand team t< play against Australian stat, sides in Christchurch from January 22 to 27 will bt named shortly.