Waikato Open $5000 Professional Men’s Event Returns for 2016

Pictured right - From left to right Fran Hopkins (SNZ Board member), Evan Williams (2015 Waikato Open Men’s Open Winner), Joelle King (2015 Waikato Open Women’s Open Winner) and Steve O’Toole (HSTC Member)

After the success of the 2015 Golden Jubilee US$5,000 Professional Squash Men’s Event, the event has returned to Hamilton Squash and Tennis Club for a second successive year. The club has teamed up with the Devoy Squash and Fitness Centre in Tauranga to run their $5k events back to back to create a circuit for local and international players to come to our country and play.  The tournaments give valuable experience and a rare chance for local players to earn world ranking points, without having to travel overseas for PSA-level events.

Players from all over the world will descend into Hamilton with players from England, Australia, America, South Korea and Singapore coming to compete along with a number of local New Zealand players.

Evan Williams (World Ranked 101) will be back to defend the title he won in 2015 and is the top seed for this event. Williams will face a qualifier in the first round with second seed Adam Murrills (World Ranked 134) of England due to face a qualifier in the first round.  The wildcard slot has been awarded to Zac Millar, who is a current Hillary Scholar at the University of Waikato and looking to advance his promising career through these events.

The Waikato Open will also run a normal tournament alongside this professional event, where local player Joelle King (World Ranked 9) will be back to defend her title.  Around 200 entries in total are expected for this huge event, which will also use courts at the nearby Hamilton Old Boys Squash Club.

A major boost for the event is PlaceMakers and Camelot on Ulster coming on board as major sponsors for the event, whom without their support the event would not be able to be run.  

PSA games will be competed on the Susan Devoy Court, which was originally built for the 1971 World Championships, and the Murray Day Court, that was added on in 1983.  It is a great opportunity to have such a high calibre of play returning to these courts, which are named after these internationally-recognised squash personalities that hail from the Waikato region.

Hamilton will be abuzz over the weekend with not only the best squash players in the world, but some of the best rugby players in the world who will be gracing the Waikato Stadium turf when the Waikato Chiefs take on the 2015 Super Rugby winner the Highlanders over the road on the Saturday night.

The club will make the weekend a true festival of squash and sport with entertainment on the Saturday night encouraging all participants to come dressed in “show your true colours”.

Qualifying rounds for the PSA event will begin at 12:00pm and 12:50pm on Thursday, with the main draw starting from 5pm on Friday.

Entry is free all weekend, so get along and watch some great international squash being played in your own backyard.

The PSA draw can be  found here