Four Kiwis in qualifying finals

Four Kiwis will contest the qualifying finals of the 2014 Christchurch International Open at Burnside Squash Club tonight, with at least one guaranteed to make the main draw.

All of the first round qualifying matches were decided in straight sets today, with all of the top four seeds untroubled in their progression to the qualifying finals.  Chris van der Salm got proceedings off to a positive start, beating Jason van der Walt 11-6 11-6 11-8 to progress.  While van der Walt was able to stay with van der Salm for the first half of most sets, van der Salm’s class shone through towards the end of each set to see him clear.  He will play against top seeded qualifier Tristan Eysele of South Africa tonight, and will doubtless have a parochial Cantabrian crowd in his corner.

Also on the top half of the draw, Ben Grindrod was too good for Midlands’ Chris Williams and will come up against England’s Pablo Rawden in the qualifying final.  Rawden is a returnee from 2013, and will be keen to build on the positive results he achieved in his first New Zealand tour.  Seeded four and five, their match-up promises to be one of the matches of the qualifying finals tonight. 

There will be an all-Kiwi match-up in one qualifying final, with Kashif Shuja to clash with Michael Pittams.  Shuja eased past protégé Luke Jones in 23 minutes, whilst Pittams tussled for 34 minutes with American Mike Lewis to set up the clash.  The final qualifying final will see Finn Tatu Knuutila come up against second seeded Hannan Tarmidi of Malaysia. 

Qualifying finals begin at 6pm at Burnside Squash Club – entry for spectators is free.

The full draw can be found ere: http://www.psaworldtour.com/page/TournamentDetails/0,,13121~2386,00.html.

2014 Doubledot Media Christchurch International Open

Round One Qualifying Results

(1) Tristan Eysele (RSA) BYE
(7)  Chris van der Salm (NZL) bt Jason van der Walt (NZL) 11-6 11-6 11-8 (22 minutes)
(5)  Pablo Rawden (ENG) bt Jackson Beresford (NZL) 11-7 11-5 11-3 (19 minutes)
(4)  Ben Grindrod (NZL) bt Chris Williams (NZL) 11-7 11-5 11-5 (15 minutes)
(3)  Kashif Shuja (NZL) bt Luke Jones (NZL) 11-3 11-7 11-5 (23 minutes)
Michael Pittams (NZL) bt (8) Mike Lewis (USA) 11-8 11-6 11-7 (34 minutes)
(6)  Tatu Knuutila (FIN) bt Corbin Faint (NZL) 11-4 11-5 11-2
(2)  Hannan Tarmidi (MAS) bt Nigel Lloyd (NZL) 11-1 11-5 11-9 (18 minutes)