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Main Draw of NZ Southern Open FoundResized Mitchell Kempton vs Ashley Davies

The second round of qualifying started with top seeded Ashley Davies (ENG) up against local hopeful Mitchell Kempton. The first set began with both players feeling their way, point for point before Davies began to take a more controlling approach from 4-all, maintaining his momentum to take the first set. Kempton came out firing in the second set and took Davies a bit by surprise, working his way to an 8-4 lead before Davies began to step back into the set and took it out without dropping another point. The third set proved to be equally as exciting for the home crowd as they willed Kempton to keep pushing and the score see-sawed back and forth before Kempton started to make unforced errors and Davies took advantage to increase his lead and take out the match 11-9.

New Zealander Luke Jones (5) was next to take the court against 3rd seeded Rhys Dowling (AUS) and the match shaped up to be a tight battle as both players took a patient, controlled approach to each point. Jones took the first set after getting to 10-8, before Dowling came back to 10-all, with Jones playing a great tight length shot to get 11-10 and then caught a lucky break with the ball catching the front corner and popping out catching Dowling off balance to take the set. Dowling returned to the court with renewed focus and determination and quickly took the lead 8-4 and patiently defended this to take the second set 11-7. The controlled approach continued in the third and fourth sets, with Jones showing great speed and agility as Dowling worked the ball from corner to corner and began to force the errors. Dowling eventually closed out the match 11-5 in the fourth.

Fourth seed Elliot Selby (ENG) was next to take the court against another young New Zealand player Sion Wiggin. This proved to be a match of youth vs experience with Wiggin throwing everything he had to stay in the rally’s and earn points. His dogged determination and speed in retrieving balls from all over the court saw him take a 2 set lead before Selby’s more controlled, methodical approach began to force errors from Wiggin in the third set and saw the momentum shift towards Selby. The fourth set was an epic battle of skill, determination, and speed as both players fought for the lead and worked each other all around the court, with Wiggin eventually managing to close out the set and the match 11-9.

The final match of Qualifying saw Mohd Syafiq Kamal of Malaysia taking on another up and coming New Zealand Junior Scott Galloway. Despite the first set being very tightly contested and requiring a tie-break, Kamal was clearly in control and showed an impressive touch of the ball, playing shots with pinpoint accuracy. The third set saw Galloway start to come back, showing increased patience and accuracy, forcing errors from Kamal and taking the match into a fourth set. Kamal took a slight lead, however Galloway came back again and evened the score, then forced another tie-break which he was unable to convert to points, with Kamal taking the set 12-10 and the match 3-1.

You can watch the excitement of round 1 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 and Qualifying Round 1 as well. 

Qualifying Round 2:

(1) Ashley Davies (ENG) bt Mitchell Kempton (NZ) 11-6, 11-8, 11-9 (18 minutes)

(3) Rhys Dowling (AUS) bt (5) Luke Jones (NZ) 10-12, 11-7, 11-5, 11-5 (38 minutes)

(6) Sion Wiggin (NZ) bt (4) Elliot Selby (ENG) 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 11-9 (38 minutes)

(2) Mohd Syafiq Kamal (MAY) bt (7) Scott Galloway (NZ) 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 12-10 (39 minutes)

Round 1 - Main Draw 

5.30pm (1) Paul Coll (NZ) vs Lance Beddoes (NZ)

5.30pm (6) Joshua Masters (ENG) vs (Q) Rhys Dowling (AUS)

6.30pm (5) Peter Creed (WAL) vs (WC) Ben Grinrod (NZ)

6.30pm (3) Rex Hedrick (AUS) vs (Q) Ashley Davies (ENG)

7.30pm (4) Angus Gillams (ENG) vs (Q) Sion Wiggin (NZ)

7.30pm (8) James Huang (TAI) vs (Q) Mohd Syafiq Kamal (MAY)

8.30pm (7) Joshua Larkin (AUS) vs Matias Tuomi (FIN)

8.30pm (2) Tsz Fung Yip (HK) vs Evan Williams (NZ)


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