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21/08/2009 All of the main seeds progressed safely through the first two rounds of the Inspire.Net New Zealand Squash Championships at SquashGym in Palmerston North today. |
In the men's draw top seed Kashif Shuja (Auckland), chasing his fifth title in six years, was untroubled in both matches, as was second seed and local hope Josh Greenfield who enjoyed two good wins.
All the key seeds in the women's draw had effortless days with top seed and world No 16 Jaclyn Hawkes dropping just 17 points in two matches while No 2 seed Joelle King (Hamilton) was on court for only 23 minutes in her two rounds. Third seed Tamsyn Leevey (Wellington) was equally impressive with two dominant wins.
It's been a real homecoming for Manawatu's Greenfield, who has spent the last two years based in Philadelphia.
He has decided to move back to the Manawatu to concentrate on training and playing fulltime, after heading to the US to learn from former world No 1 John White, one of the hardest hitters in the game. But it proved a catch 22 for the 25 year old kiwi.
“I had a coaching job lined up to make ends meet. And I got to play a lot of PSA events in the US,” Greenfield said. “But I ended up coaching so much that it was too tough trying to play and work fulltime. You are playing against fulltime professionals and I realised that you can't do both.
“I can coach any time but I want to put playing first. I am still young so I want to make the most of it. I will look to go back in the New Year and play some PSA events. I just want to see how far I can get on the world ranking. I want to have a real go at it.”
A recent shin injury has left him light on court time coming into the championships where he hopes to improve on last year's semifinal loss to eventual winner Shuja, dropping a game against promising teenager Lance Beddoes (West Auckland) before progressing in four games.
In games against the seedings, Wellington's Keegan Burkhart, the 24th seed, upset ninth seed Christopher Lloyd (Hamilton) in four games and 11th seed Sam Atkins (Wellington) edged out 22nd seed Michael Martin (Hamilton) also in four games.
Hawkes (Auckland) needed little more than 20 minutes to progress in her two matches over Mt Maunganui's Jeanne Yells and North Shore's Rachel McLeod and No 2 seed King took 22 minutes to down Wellington's Liz Wilson and Eliza Sim. Leevey, the 2006 world doubles champion, showed an impressive return to the game when she demolished Rebecca Barnett (Wellington) and Paula Darlington (Palmerston North) in straight games.
Of the upsets, No 24 seed Alison Whyte (Wellington) accounted for ninth seed Te Pua Russell (Mt Maunganui) in straight games, and 20th seed Paula Darlington, from the host club, took out 13th seed Kay Newman (Hamilton) in three straight.
The quarterfinals are tomorrow morning and semifinals in the evening with finals on Sunday.
 2009 NZ Senior National Champs Draw.pdf(453.13 KB)
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