NZ Southern Open Qualifying Round 1 

The first match of qualifying for the NZ ILT Community Trust of Southland Southern Open saw two of Southland’s top Junior players Regan McNaught and Mitchell Kempton up against each other for the chance to progress through to the next round.

McNaught managed to keep up the pace on higher graded Kempton in a tight 3 set battle in which both players worked each other around the court and pull out some great shot play as they battled for each and every point. Kempton managed to hold out and take the match in 3 sets 14-12, 11-7, 11-8

Next up was another local player Adrian Mennell against Palmerston North’s Luke Jones. The first set was tightly contested with Mennell showing his speed around the court and ability to retrieve, taking the set to a tie-break which Jones was able to win 12-10. The next 2 sets saw Jones much more in control, moving Mennell all around the court and playing a number of nick shots to close out points. Jones took a comfortable 3 set win, 12-10, 11-6, 11-6.

Third up was Sion Wiggin of Auckland up against Shane Hatwell of Te Anau. The first two sets saw both players looking for weaknesses to exploit, and Wiggin used deception at the front and wide angles to combat Hatwell’s height and long reach. Hatwell combated Wiggin’s speed and agility with tight length and some quite impressive short shots, however Wiggin proved to be far too strong, and took a quick 3 set win 11-7, 11-8, 11-1.

The final match of the night between Scott Galloway of Wellington and another local Southland player Brendon Frew started off with a very tightly contested first set where Frew used his height and long reach to continually retrieve balls and keep pressure on Galloway. Galloway eventually found his way through at 8 all to take the set 11-8. The second set saw much of the same game-play from Frew, attacking the ball early to keep applying pressure and Galloway had to work hard as the score remained even, getting game-ball 8 again where his corkscrew serve was returned by Frew with a rolling nick, however that just delayed the set by 1 further point with Galloway able to take the next point and the set. Frew pushed hard in the third set to take a quick 5-0 lead and eventually took that set 11-3 to the delight of local supporters. Galloway regrouped well during the break and came out much stronger in the fourth, working to get 9-4 lead then maintaining his composure to close out the match 11-6.

You can watch the excitement of qualifying games from 5:30pm tonight here

Draws for the PSA event can be found here

Make sure you keep up to date with the leadup as well. 

Qualifying Round 1

Mitchell Kempton bt Regan McNaught 14-12, 11-7, 11-8 (30 minutes)

Luke Jones bt Adrian Mennell 12-10, 11-6, 11-6 (28 minutes)

Sion Wiggin bt Shane Hatwell 11-7, 11-8, 11-1 (16 minutes)

Scott Galloway bt Brendan Frew 11-8, 11-9, 3-11, 11-6 (30 minutes)

Qualifying Round 2

5.30pm (1) Ashley Davies (ENG) vs Mitchell Kempton (NZ)

6.30pm (5) Luke Jones (NZ) vs (3) Rhys Dowling (AUS)

7.30pm (4) Elliot Selby (ENG) vs (6) Sion Wiggin (NZ)

8.30pm (2) Mohd Syafiq Kamal (MAY) vs (7) Scott Galloway (NZ)