Senior Nationals 2016 Seedings Set 

Pictured Right – Paul Coll (Left) and Campbell Grayson (Right) 2015 Senior Nationals Finalists

In a weeks time some of the top players in New Zealand will be battling it out for the most prestigious titles in squash. The most notable entry missing is Joelle King who will be competing in the Cathay Pacific Sun Hung Kai Financial Hong Kong Open 2016, whilst Paul Coll is seeded to claim his second National title.

In the Women’s draw with King missing this sees Blenheim based Megan Craig move into the top seeding. Craig who was in the final in 2015 and was the winner in 2014 after an unfortunate incident saw King snap her achilles in the final will be looking to get her name back on the Mitchell Rosebowl Women’s National Champion trophy. Craig has a current world ranking of 53 and has been training hard throughout 2016 and will certainly be looking to make this trophy her goal. Should all go to plan Craig will have to take out Amanda Landers-Murphy in the final of the Women’s event. Landers-Murphy from Rotorua will be arriving straight back off a plane Friday afternoon from the World Doubles Championships in Darwin to take her chance at this title. Landers-Murphy has a current world ranking of 62 so it is sure to be a close battle between these two top players should they make it to the final.

The Women’s Draw will also see a number of New Zealand’s other top female players competing to make their mark in this selection event for the World Women’s Team Championships to be hosted in Paris, France later this year. Emma Millar who is currently based in the Waikato and training with former professional player Kylie Lindsay takes the third seed in this event and will be looking to make her mark at this event after some strong performances in recent Australian PSA events. Ellie Epke is the fourth seed for this event and she will also be fired up after finishing 8th at the World Junior Championships in Poland. Epke has based herself in England to train this year and will be looking to make her mark on her return. Danielle Fourie is the fifth seed in the event and this Palmerston North based player will be looking to go one further against her opponents after narrowly missing out on the 2014 World Women’s Team in a playoff between herself and Rebecca Barnett. Barnett takes sixth seed in the event and will be looking to show why she was selected for the 2014 World Women’s Team. Joanna Shanks and Abbie Palmer round out the top 8 in the Women’s Draw.

The Men’s Draw sees 2015 National Champion Paul Coll looking to go two in a row on the Riddiford Gold Cup for the Men’s National Champion. Coll currently boasts a World Ranking of 31 and has moved from strength to strength over the past 18 months claiming three back to back PSA titles in June. Coll will be set to face Campbell Grayson in the final of the Men’s Draw should all go to plan with Grayson currently holding a world ranking of 42. Grayson has just made his way into the final of the Australian Open and should he manage to claim this title he will be looking to claim another title in the form of this national championship. Both Coll and Grayson will step off a plane from Darwin Friday afternoon where they will have competed as teammates in the World Doubles where they boast an impressive third seeding.

Evan Williams the current world ranked 87 from Wellington is the third seed. Williams claimed the recent Bendigo PSA title and will be looking to use this momentum to propel him in this event. Lance Beddoes is world ranked 110 and the fourth seed in this event. Ben Grindrod takes fifth seed and the current world ranked 152 player from Tauranga will be making sure he puts on a good show after making the top 16 in the Australian Open this week. Chris Van Der Salm and Oliver Johnston from the SquashWays club in Christchurch take sixth and seventh seeds respectively with Chris Lloyd rounding out the top 8 players.

The Remuera Rackets Club is excited for a great weekend of squash and with over 160 players competing in the event it is sure to be an exciting weekend. Games will be livestreamed and this can be found here.

Draws will be released on the Remuera Rackets Club website on Monday.

Pictured Below – Megan Craig (Left) and Joelle King (Right) 2015 Senior Nationals Finalists