Aon New Zealand Junior Open Draws Over 190 Players to Waikato

Pictured Right - 2016 Aon New Zealand Junior Open Champions Jamie Oakley and Abbie Palmer

The Aon New Zealand Junior Open has drawn over 190 Players from both New Zealand, Australia and further afield to the Cambridge Racquets Club and Leamington Squash Club to compete in the first National title of 2017. Many of the players will be backing up for their second big tournament in a week after competing in the Southern Cross Travel Insurance Oceania Junior Championships over Easter.

The Girls Open will see Kaitlyn Watts taking the top seed to hopefully go one better after finishing Runner-Up in the 2016 edition. Needless to say though that Watts will be on a high and looking to go two titles in a row after winning the Oceania Junior Championships Under 19 title. Anna Hughes will be returning from studies in America to make her mark on the competition and will take the second seeding in the event. Nadia Hubbard takes 3rd seeding and will be looking to go one better this week after losing out to Anika Jackson (the 4th seed) in the Oceania Junior Championships 3/4 playoff. Jackson will be looking to take advantage of the event being in her home district to try and take her to the next level this weekend.

The Boys Open sees Matthew Lucente taking the top seed and after his win in the Under 17 Boys at the Oceania Junior Championships he will feel confident going into this event. Gabe Yam takes second seeding and will be looking to go one better this week after finishing runner up to Lucente on the weekend. Northland’s Finn Trimble will be seeded third and will feel as confident as Lucente and Yam after he claimed the Under 19 Boys title at the Oceania Junior Championships over the weekend. Quinn Udy rounds out the top 4 and will be looking to try and topple the three seeds ahead of him after finishing runner up in the Under 19 Boys at the Oceania Junior Championships.

This is the second selection event for the World Junior Championships in Tauranga in July and there will be a number of players looking to have strong performances throughout the weekend to stamp their mark.

The event will be hosted primarily at the Cambridge Racquets Club and the Leamington Squash Club with some matches being played at St Peters School in Cambridge as well.

All draws can be found on iSquash, please check your emails and back to iSquash regularly as draws change. Good luck to all the players involved in the event.