Day 1 Round Up NZ Junior Nationals

The first day of the New Zealand Junior Nationals at the Hamilton Squash and Tennis club has gone mostly to plan with only two significant upsets recorded throughout all the age groups. With 200 players it was sure to be a great day of squash.

The Boys divisions have all gone to plan with all the tops seeds moving through to their respective second round games. With some players having to qualify through tough games into the main draw it was always going to be tough to come up against the higher seeded players but they fought hard and made it a great day of squash.

In the Girls divisions it seemed as not much was going to phase the higher seeded players. This was until an upset was due in the Girls Under 17 draw where it was Auckland’s Lauren Vodanovich who claimed the first take down of her higher seeded opponent fifth seed Ruby Turnbull. Turnbull was only able to claw one game back from Vodanovich with Vodanovich managing to take the match in four and secure her place in the quarter finals.

The second upset of the first day came from the Under 15 girls where 10th seed Sam Harding from Eastern took out the 7th seed from Auckland Ruby Saies. Harding looked convincing in her win over Saies taking the match in three and never looking back as she progressed through.

All the games have been played in great spirits by all competitors and it is nice to see such good sportsmanship and behaviour to date, we look forward to it continuing throughout the weekend.

Games start at the Hamilton Squash & Tennis Club at 8:40am Friday morning.