Top Seeds Power On in Palmerston North 

The quarter finals have gone to seeding in all bar one match at the Fitzherbert Rowe Lawyers New Zealand International Squash Classic at SquashGym tonight.

First on court was New Zealander and top seed Paul Coll who met James Huang from Malaysia. Coll has been in great form of late and is a big favourite this week. He dominated Huang early but in the third game there was an accidental collision that required Huang to take time off the court. Huang returned but unfortunately had to retire hurt. “You never like that to happen to your opponent and he showed great sportsmanship to come back on and try to carry on,” Coll said. Coll has had light work load so far this week and will be fresh for the semi-finals.

Coll will play another Malaysian in Ivan Yuen who beat Peter Creed from Wales in three straight games. Yuen was too precise and accurate for the gritty Welshman who showed great athleticism and fight against the classy Yuen. Creed pushed two games to 12 – 10 but was unable to get across the line in either in his straight games defeat. Yuen will be looking for revenge against Coll who recently beat him in the semi-finals in Hong Kong 3 – 2. It sets up to be a fantastic match on SquashGym’s main court tomorrow afternoon.

The only minor upset in the quarter finals came in the all English clash between fourth seed Angus Gillams and sixth seed Joshua Masters. The English duo clearly knew each other’s game well and a tight three game match was played out with the lower seeded Masters taking it out 11- 7, 11 – 8, 11- 9.

The final match of the night pitted second seed Rex Hedrick of Australia against qualifier Eain Yow Ng. Ng has had a big week with two rounds of qualifying before last night’s first round where he upset seeded player Joshua Larkin. Hedrick loves to play long and structured rallies and that proved too much for Ng playing his fourth big match in the same number of nights. Hedrick will now play Joshua Masters in the other semi-final tomorrow afternoon.

The semi-finals will be streamed ‘live’ around the world. Women's Open Semi-Final Starts at 2:30pm whilst the Men's PSA starts at 4pm at SquashGym Palmerston North with free entry for spectators. You can watch the excitement here

Draws for the PSA event can be found here whilst the local event and womens draws can be found here

Make sure to check out what happened in the leadup, qualifying round 1, qualifying round 2 and Round 1 as well!

Quarter-Finals

 (1) Paul Coll (NZ) beat (8) James Huang (MAS) 11 – 0, 11 – 8, 4 – 4 Huang retired

(5) Peter Creed (WAL) lost to (3) Ivan Yuen (MAS) 10 – 12, 3 – 11, 10 - 12

(4) Angus Gillams (ENG) lost to (6) Joshua Masters (ENG) 7 – 11, 8 – 11, 9 - 11

Eain Yo Ng (MAS) lost to (2) Rex Hedrick (AUS) 8 – 11, 7 – 11, 9 -11

Semi Finals

(1) Paul Coll (NZ) v (3) Ivan Yuen (MAS)

(6) Joshua Masters (ENG) v (2) Rex Hedrick (AUS)

For more information; Michael Williams, Media Manager, 027 6712988 media@squashgym.co.nz