Centenary event provides top shelf table tennis

The centenary Marlborough Open marked a significant milestone for local table tennis when it was staged at Simcox Stadium.

Visiting players, ranked among the country’s best, picked up the main titles, with 330 matches played on Saturday and Sunday.

Canterbury's Griffin Buchanan, seeded two, won the Harcourts Marlborough men's singles title, beating Manawatu's Matt Ball, the top seed, in the final in four sets.

The third-place match was a thrilling seven-setter, won by Canterbury's under-13 player William Hsia over Nelson's Daniel Astle.

Local player Matt Pigou reached the quarterfinals and was joined in post section play by other locals - Ollie Phipps, Nathan Cross and Harry Speakman. Former Marlborough player, Michael Kamson, now playing for Counties Manukau, also qualified.

Canterbury's Tracey Hsia, also a junior, won the Wallace Diack women's singles title with a four-set victory over Nelson's Anna King.

Marlborough's Jacqui Wood claimed third place with a win over Canterbury's Gemma Buzzard. Other local players to qualify for post section play were the unseeded duo of Lan Zhang and Cora Wilson.

Griffin and William took out the men's doubles title over Matt Ball and Matt Pigou, while Nathan Cross and Ollie Phipps did well to reach the semi-finals, beating the fourth seeds in the process.

Nelson's Anna King and Ana Vasquez Ramirez beat Canterbury's Gemma Buzzard and Gisele Chen in the final of the women's doubles, having earlier beaten locals Jacqui Wood and Caitlin Exton in a four setter.

Griffin claimed a hat trick of titles when he partnered Tracey for a win in the mixed doubles final over Jim and Gisele Chen.

Locals Ollie Phipps and Caitlin Exton caused an upset when they beat the Nelson pair of Dimitri Bell and Anna King in the quarter finals.

In the second grade, Otago's Edwin Nieman beat Michael Kamson for the men’s singles crown. Ollie Phipps beat the top seed Hayden Petch of Canterbury in the quarter final before losing to Edwin.Matt Pigou lost to Michael in the other semi.

In the equivalent women's event, Ana Vasquez Ramirez beat Marlborough's Lan Zhang, while Caitlin Exton reached the semi-finals.

In the men's doubles final, Matt Pigou combined with Hayden Petch to beat the local duo of Nathan Cross and Ollie Phipps.

A title came Marlborough's way when Caitlin and Lan beat Ana and Nelson's Nikki Waterman in the women's doubles final.

Veterans and junior events were contested on Sunday.

Daniel Astle won the over-40 and over-50 men's singles while Anna King beat Jacqui Wood in the final of the over-40 women's grade.

Nelson's Mark Nalder won the men's over-60 singles title.

William Hsia won the boys under-19 singles, Ollie Phipps reaching the semi-finals and Fletcher Phipps making the quarter finals.

Tracey Hsia took out the girls' under-19 section with Marlborough players Caitlin Exton and Lily Parker second and third respectively. Caitlin combined with fellow local Olivia Earl to win the girls’ doubles final.

William also annexed the boys' under-15 singles title while Marlborough's Cora Wilson took out the equivalent girls' event.

Ollie King won the under-13 singles with Gisele Chen winning the girls’ round-robin.

Cora Wilson and Aysha Hollyman won the girls' under-13 doubles final.