THE Surry District Tennis Association began their season on Saturday with only one of the two A grade games finishing due to rain.

Lawn Purple recorded their first win for the season against Tyrendarra while the Lawn Blue versus Heywood match was washed out.

It was a close victory for the reigning premiers who defeated Tyrendarra, 3-39 to 3-37 on the hard courts at Henty Park.

The two sides played in the new format of two sets of women’s doubles, two sets of men’s doubles and two sets of mixed doubles.

Tyrendarra’s combination of Jeremy Prevett and Marcus McClintock defeated Cam McCallum and Nash Wollard in the first two sets 8-6 and 8-1, while Lawn Purple dominated with Leah Sandeman and Kerri-Ann O’Keefe defeating Sally McClintock and Hannah Jones, 8-2 and 8-4.

The match came down to the last two mixed doubles sets with McCallum and O’Keefe finishing the set against the McClintocks 6-8, before a nail-biting final set with Wollard and Sandeman holding on just enough to go down to Prevett and Jones, 8-9, and finish the match two games ahead.

It was a fitting clash to open the season with last season’s grand finalists taking the match down to the wire.

Lawn Purple’s Sandeman said it was a tough contest to kick off round one.

“We played and managed to get the two wins, eight to two and then eight to four, it was a good match up,” she said of the women’s sets.

“The boys had a really long first set but lost control a little bit in the second so we were only one game ahead going into the mixed.

“The mixed match ups were really tight, we went to a tie break and Nash did really well – he has come up from A reserve and I thought we played together nicely.”

While the second game in Heywood between Lawn Blue and Heywood was washed out, Sandeman said the weather held up for them in Portland.

“The weather was fine down our end, it was a bit spotty when we started but then the sun came out and it was actually a bit warm,” she said.