Semi-Finalists in NZ Southern Open Decided 

The top four seeds have survived the quarter finals of The ILT & CTOS NZ Southern Open played tonight at Squashcity Invercargill with a crowd of spectators eager to view some intense squash, and the line-up of matches was sure to provide some excellent game-play.

First to take the court was top seed Paul Coll (NZ) against England’s Joshua Masters. The first set saw Coll forcing errors from Masters as he worked him around the court well with long hard rallies. Masters had a good start in the second set, pushing Coll to work harder as he kept the score even through to 6-6, and then Coll started to apply more pressure again forcing the errors from Masters. The third set was Coll’s for the taking with a very strong start that he maintained and built on to take the final set 11-1.

With both players having similar game styles, the match between Peter Creed (WAL) and Rex Hedrick (AUS) lived up to expectation with plenty of long, hard, fast paced rallies, with both players seeking to get the ball past their opponent and put them off balance. The first set went for a grueling 25 minutes with neither player showing any signs of slowing down in their race around the court, and some great sportsmanship displayed by Hedrick when a backswing let was denied to Creed and Hedrick said he felt a let should be played. Hedrick managed to take the set 11-7. An increase in unforced errors by Creed saw a much shorter second set, although no less fast paced, with Hedrick sealing the game at 11-2. The fast pace continued into the third set, with both players retrieving seemingly impossible balls, fighting hard to earn points, and Creed giving himself a pep-talk halfway through the set. Hedrick was able to hang on and took the set and the match 11-8.

Fourth seed Angus Gillams (ENG) looked to have his match against eighth seed James Huang (TAI) completely under control, dominating the court and working Huang into making errors throughout the first two sets. Gillams was attacking any loose balls, volleying to maintain the pressure on Huang. The third set started much tighter with Huang pushing Gillams to his backhand and errors began to creep into Gillams’ game as Huang controlled his own shots much better, managing to sneak the set in 12-10. Gillams came back much more focused in the fourth set and played with much more purpose and control again to take the match 11-3.

The final match of the evening saw second seed Tsz Fung Yip taking on Australian seventh seed Joshua Larkin in what was an exciting and entertaining match. Tsz Fung was able to pick up some great shots, with Larkin working hard all around the court and using his seemingly elastic arms to retrieve some balls well past, but Tsz Fung was able to close out more points and take the first two sets with relative ease. Larkin entered the third set clearly prepared to leave nothing out there and went after every ball with intense energy, speed, and agility, at times diving throughout the rally to retrieve balls and even playing a shot while on the ground, which saw a brief blood break when Larkin wounded his arm. On his return to the court he returned the serve of Tsz Fung with a crosscourt nick drop, however then served out and Tsz Fung closed out the match 11-8. The final rally was hard fought with neither player willing to stop trying, well worth a watch on the live-stream archive.

You can watch the excitement of quarter final games from 5:30pm tonight here

Draws for the PSA event can be found here

Make sure you keep up to date with the leadup, Qualifying Round 1, Qualifying Round 2 and Round 1 as well.

Quarter Finals:

(1) Paul Coll (NZ) bt (6) Joshua Masters (ENG) 11-5, 11-8, 11-1 (31 minutes)

(3) Rex Hedrick (AUS) bt (5) Peter Creed (WAL) 11-7, 11-2, 11-8 (36 minutes)

(4) Angus Gillams (ENG) bt (8) James Huang (TAI) 11-3, 11-5, 10-12, 11-3 (46 minutes)

(2) Tsz Fung Yip (HKG) bt Joshua Larkin (AUS) 11-6, 11-5, 11-8 (36 minutes)

Semi-Finals Matches

5.30pm (1) Paul Coll (NZ) vs (3) Rex Hedrick (AUS)

6.30pm (2) Tsz Fung Yip (HKG) vs (4) Angus Gillams (ENG)