Junior Nationals underway

The 2014 Junior National Age Group Championships are underway at Remuera Rackets Club.

More than 200 players from around Aotearoa have been welcomed by a bleak, precipitative, but characteristically humid Auckland day.  The players seemed to make a good fist of the conditions, with some high quality, and highly competitive, squash on show during the opening round matches.

The early rounds have thus far been light on upsets.  Eden Epsom's Ella Lash - tenth seed in the under 11 girls' - defeated seventh seed Anna Duncan of Omakau to progress to the quarter-finals, where she will come u against second seed Diana Galloway of Mitchell Park.

Fifth seed Ruby Saies (Panmure) overcame fourth seed Renee Dudson (Geyser City) to move to the semi-finals of the girls' under 13.  Her reward is a match-up with top seed Anika Jackson (Hamilton).  In the other semi-final Annaleise Faint (SquashGym Palmerston North) will play Georgia Fyfe (Eden Epsom).

The girls' under 15 division began early in the day with qualifying matches.  Taylor Jamieson (Upper Hutt), Amy Horscroft (Te Puke), Amara Afghan (North Shore) and Lauren Vodanovich (Remuera) won through to the main draw, where they will be in action again later tonight.

The girls' under 17 division went largely according to seeding, with four matches played to decide who would join the 12 top seeds in the second round.

The boys' under 11 went largely to seeding - with only ninth seed Brennen Jolly from Devonport causing an upset (on paper at least) by beating eighth seed Bruno Murray from Nelson.  Brennan will now play Henderson's top seed, Mason Smales, in the quarter-finals.

Ben Tomlinson (Eden Epsom), Joe Smythe (Mana), Ishaan Bhide (Eden Epsom) and Sam Leabourne (Remuera) won through to the second round of the boys' under 13 division.  They are joined there by the top four seeds (and recipients of first round byes) Glenn Templeton (Katikati), Elijah Thomas (Eden Epsom), Leo Fatialofa (Henderson) and Kobe Fleming (Mana).

There were no upsets in the first round of the boys' under 15 competition, with the top eight seeds all progressing to the quarter-finals.  The match of the round was played between seventh seed Caleb Madden (Squash City Invercargill) and tenth seed Elliot Jenkins (Whakatane).  The encounter will the full distance, as Madden twice fought back from a game down to punch his ticket to the next round.

The boys' under 17, and boys' and girls' under 19, divisions get underway later in the evening - check back tomorrow for more results.

For more results, stay tuned to www.fb.com/SquashNZ throughout the weekend.