Giant killer to face top seed

Press, 27 December 1982, Page 18

Giant killer to face top seed

By

JOHN BROOKS

A large percentage of the “foreign” content in the Skellerup All' Stars Canterbury open tennis championships shuffled off the scene yesterday by courtesy of a young Christchurch man who is not even a senior inter-club player. Alistair Salton, of the Shirley club, eliminated Just Pilgrim (West Germany) and the Australian-domiciled John Plug in the two rounds of qualifying matches at Wilding Park to earn a place in the tournament proper.

But his golden run is unlikely to be prolonged because his singles opponent this morning is the topseeded David Lewis (Auckland), youngest of the celebrated tennis playing brothers.

The 18-year-old Lewis is making the Canterbury open his sole tournament target before the prestigious Benson and Hedges event in Auckland in the new year. He has the form to justify his top seeding and the venue represents a good omen, for it was at Wilding Park two years ago that he won the New Zealand under-17 singles and doubles titles. . He had a solid work-out with Michael Mooney on the hard courts yesterday, and gave the impression that he might be a little too purposeful for his opponents. Mooney, too, shaped well and he and Brett Hibbert are expected to be the best of the home grown performers. Peter Hampton, whose return to Christchurch tournament tennis was keenly awaited, cried off with a back injury.

Seeded behind Lewis in the men’s singles are Malcolm Elley, the former Wellingtonian who has recently returned from overseas, and Barrv Tavlor, whose first

season Jn Canterbury interclub tennis has been marked by an unbroken string of wins for Woolston.

The women’s singles has attracted a disappointingly small field of eight; a late withdrawal was a former national junior champion, Janine Perkinson (Auckland), who is unwell.

The title-holder, Sally Moorfield, has been seeded first, ahead of the three-time Federation Cup player and former champion, Brenda Perry (Auckland). No qualifying matches were required in the women’s singles, naturally enough, but in the men’s division John O’Malley (Otago) was set a stiff assignment to qualify. He survived two testing tussles with the prominent Christchurch club players, Colin Hunt and Peter McCormack, conceding a set to the latter before earning his place in the field. Results of the qualifying matches were.—

Round I.— Salton beat Pilgrim, 6-4, 7-5; P. Fitzmaurice beat G. Main, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4; D. Mitchell beat J. Adair, 7-5, 6-1; S. Baird beat S. Adair, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4; O’Malley beat C. A. Hunt. 6-4, 63.

Round 2— R. Mason beat M. Haines, 6-4, 6-3; Salton beat Plug. 6-4, 6-4; Fitzmaurice beat Mitchell, 6-3, 6-2; M. Belcher (Otago) beat B. Williams, 6-4, 7-5; G. Webb (Otago) beat S. Jamieson, 7-6, 6-1; Baird beat G. Smith, 6-1, 6-4; O’Malley beat McCormack,’ 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; R. Dalman beat C. Roberts, 6-1. 6-1.

The draw for today is.— Men’s singles.— Lewis v. Salton, O’Malley v. B. Skjellerup, Mooney v. Baird, Dalman v. Taylor, Hibbert v. Webb, Fitzmaurice v. P. Seeman, V. Aubrey v. Mason, Belcher v. Elley. Women’s singles- S. Moorfield v. J. Malham, K. McNeill v. R. Seeman. J. Phillips v. S. Black. L. Ratana v. B. Perry.