Finals Set For Fitzherbert Rowe Lawyers New Zealand International Classic PSA

The top seeds have all fallen on the semifinals day of the Fitzherbert Rowe Lawyers New Zealand International Classic PSA at SquashGym Palmerston North with Lisa Aitken and Emma Millar to do battle in the Women’s final and Greg Lobban and Mahesh Mangaonkar doing battle in the men’s final.

The first Women’s semifinal saw unseeded Lisa Aitken of Scotland taking on fourth seed Andrea Lee of Malaysia. Lee claimed the first game but some grit and determination from Aitken saw her claw back the second game and carry this on into the third to go 2-1 up. In the fourth Aitken looked set to round out the match but Lee fought hard saving the match and sending it to the fifth. It was an exciting fifth setter with the game going long but it was Aitken that got there in the end and made her way into the final. The second Women’s semifinal saw New Zealand’s seventh seed Emma Millar take on sixth seed Jemyca Aribado of the Phillipines. Aribado and Millar went long in the first and whilst both players had their chances it was Millar that went 1-0 up. Millar found too many of her shots going into the tin in the second as Aribado levelled the game score 1-1. Millar sorted her errors after that and proceeded on to claim the next 2 games and her place in her first 5K final, winning 3-1.

The first Men’s semifinal saw third seed Greg Lobban of Scotland taking on second seed Angus Gillams of England. Lobban continued to show his dominance and strength in stepping forward and attacking. Whilst Gillams fought hard he was never able to fully get Lobban behind him with Lobban claiming the match 3-0. The last semifinal saw fourth seed Mahesh Mangaonkar of India take on his unseeded opponent Eain Yow Ng of Malaysia. Yow Ng looked set to cause another upset as he claimed the first game, but it was Mangaonkar that was able to use his professionalism and skills to step forward and push Yow Ng to claim the next 3 games and taking the match 3-1 securing his spot in the final.

Full game results can be found below.

The finals for the women’s kicks off at 1pm Sunday and the men’s finals starts at 2pm Sunday.

Livestreaming begins 1pm and the link can be found here Court 5 or below in this article. Other matches from court 2 can be seen here.

If you wish to commentate or watch some alternative commentary from the weekend jump over to SPALK here.

Main Draw Semi Finals

Lisa Aitken (SCO) bt [4] Andrea Lee (MAS) 3-2: 9-11, 13-11, 11-4, 10-12, 12-10 (61mins)
[7] Emma Millar (NZL) bt [6] Jemyca Aribado (PHI) 3-1: 14-12, 2-11, 11-5, 11-3 (34mins)
[3] Greg Lobban (SCO) bt [2] Angus Gillams (ENG) 3-0: 11-5, 11-1, 11-6 (29mins)
[4] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND) bt Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-1: 7-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-5 (48mins)

Main Draw Finals

1pm - Lisa Aitken (SCO) vs [7] Emma Millar (NZL)
2pm - [3] Greg Lobban (SCO) vs [4] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND)

Court 2