No Upsets in NZ Southern Open Round 1

All the seeded players have made it through the first round of The 2016 ILT & CTOS NZ Southern Open although there was a couple of lucky escapes.

First up were two local favourites, top seed Paul Coll and Lance Beddoes. With these two players sharing a long history coming through the junior ranks together this was sure to be great start to the 2016 ILT CTOS NZ Southern Open. Unlike previous encounters between Coll and Beddoes here in Invercargill, this time Coll proved far too strong and dominated the court to take a relatively easy 3-0 win.

Things weren’t going quite so easily over on the other court as Rhys Dowling was looking to notch up a win against English player Joshua Masters. The match was fast paced and looked like it was going to be an upset with Dowling taking a 2-0 lead, providing an excellent display of speed and his love of playing nicks before Masters stepped his game up further and edged through to take the next 3 sets and the match.

Wildcard Ben Grindrod of New Zealand was next up against Peter Creed of Wales and despite this being a fairly quick match the score-line by no means indicates the tightly contested rallies between the two players. Both players covered the court well and both were looking to work the other around with short and long shots, slow and fast pace.

Meanwhile on the other court another brutal battle was shaping up between qualifier Ashley Davies (ENG) and third seed Rex Hedrick (AUS). Davies took quick control of the first set, showing he could well be in contention for the title of hardest hit from Cameron Pilley as he cracked the ball all around the court. The second set was full of very long rallies with both players using very different game styles – Power hitting from Davies and careful placement from Hedrick. Hedrick managed to take the second set 11-7 and both players were beginning to look tired as the third set progressed into a marathon with the score going point for point with Hedrick able to sneak in 11-9. The fourth set was another hard fought battle with both players showing patience and control under pressure, Hedrick just edging Davies out again 11-9.

Fourth seed Angus Gillams (ENG) proved far too strong for qualifier Sion Wiggin, using his experience and skill to run Wiggin all around the court and playing shots that were just too good for the young kiwi to return. Gillams was able to dominate the entire match, maintaining control over the rallies and pulling off a very quick 3 set win.

Likewise the match between seventh seed Joshua Larkin (AUS) and Matias Tuomi (FIN) was a one sided affair with Larkin using a forehand cross-court nick shot with pinpoint precision to end rallies and earn points. At times it seemed as though Larkin’s arms were elastic as he stretched out and retrieved shots that appeared past, and was constantly moving up the court to attack the ball and keep applying unrelenting pressure on Tuomi.

Qualifier Mohd Syafiq Kamal (MAY) was unable to pull out a win against eighth seed James Huang (TAI), with Huang maintaining his composure and patience throughout the match. The sets were tightly contested, with errors costing Kamal opportunities.

The final match of the first round was Evan Williams (NZ) and second seed Tsz Fung Yip (HK) with Tsz Fung showing clinical precision throughout the match. Williams fought hard and snuck in some great winning shots, but Tsz Fung was just too strong this time and took the win 3-0.

You can watch the excitement of quarter final 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, Qualifying Round 1 and Qualifying Round 2 as well. 

Round 1 Results:

(1) Paul Coll (NZ) bt Lance Beddoes (NZ) 11-1, 11-4, 11-3 (23 minutes)

(6) Joshua Masters (ENG) bt (Q) Rhys Dowling (AUS) 9-11, 11-13, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5 (62 minutes)

(5) Peter Creed (WAL) bt (WC) Ben Grinrod (NZ) 11-8, 11-6, 11-4 (28minutes)

(3) Rex Hedrick (AUS) bt (Q) Ashley Davies (ENG) 5-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-9 (60 minutes)

(4) Angus Gillams (ENG) bt (Q) Sion Wiggin (NZ) 11-4, 11-2, 11-6 (21 minutes)

(7) Joshua Larkin (AUS) bt  Matias Tuomi (FIN) 11-1, 11-4, 11-4 (21 minutes)

(8) James Huang (TAI) bt Mohd Syafiq Kamal (MAY) 11-7, 11-9, 11-7 (35 minutes)

(2) Tsz Fung Yip (HK) bt Evan Williams (NZ) 11-5, 11-4, 11-7 (29 minutes)

Second Round Matches (Friday Night)

5.30pm (1) Paul Coll (NZ) vs (6) Joshua Masters (ENG)                

6.30pm (5) Peter Creed (WAL)  vs (3) Rex Hedrick (AUS)

7.30pm (4) Angus Gillams (ENG) vs (8) James Huang (TAI)

8.30pm (7) Joshua Larkin (AUS) vs (2) Tsz Fung Yip (HKG)