Knight rides on in Invercargill

Martin Knight will contest the final of the NZ Southern Open US$15k PSA event in Invercargill on Sunday.

Squashcity Invercargill was humming with excitement as the semi-finals of the ILT & Community Trust Southern Open PSA began tonight.

First to take the court were top seed Mohd Nafiizwan (MAS) and fourth seed Rex Hedrick (AUS). Hedrick made a strong start and took the first set 11-5, followed by Adnan striking back to take the second set 11-3. The third set was much more tightly contested with both players fighting hard to get the lead with Hedrick eventually closing it out 11-8. The match then switched back to Adnan’s favour with an 11-6 set to take the match to 2-2. The final set was incredibly close and saw several points replayed many times as players were awarded lets. After 36 minutes of battling for the lead in the final set Hedrick managed to sneak past Adnan to book his place in tomorrow’s final. Hedrick was ecstatic with the win and said “he’s the highest ranked player I have beaten and to date this is the highlight of my career.”

Next up was second seed Martin Knight (NZL) and third seed Matthew Karwalski (AUS). Karwalski will have been hoping for an all Australian final and will have been looking to reverse the result from Palmerston North 2 weeks ago. Despite the crowd being fully behind Knight, he looked difficult to beat in the first set, taking it 11-6. Knight had different plans however and came back much harder to take the second set 11-7. From there Knight remained focused and often travelled around the court at a lightening quick pace to pick up balls that must have left Karwalski wondering if he had grown wings on his feet.

Knight said “today was a very different match to the last time, Matt came out firing in the first and outplayed me. After the first I tried to soak up a lot of the pressure and concentrated on putting the balls into the corners with a bit more purpose. Fortunately Matt’s movement slowed down a bit after the first game and I was able to put him under more pressure. Really happy to win the match and put myself into my second final in two tournaments.”

Remember to tune in to free live streaming of the final at 2.50pm on Sunday.  The finals of 'division one' of the South Island Champs will also be streamed immediately beforehand: http://new.livestream.com/NBLlivestreaming/events/3115695.

Semi-final results:

 (4) Rex Hedrick (AUS) beat (1) Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan (MAS) 11-5, 3-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-8 (94 mins)
 (2) Martin Knight (NZL) beat (3) Matthew Karwalski (AUS) 6-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-5 (58mins)