ILT Community Trust NZ Southern Invercargill Open Qualifying Round 1

The first round of Qualifying at the 2017 ILT Community Trust of Southland NZ Southern Open started off with two convincing wins by England’s Bradley Masters and New Zealand’s Luke Jones against local Southland players Matty Broad and Adrian Mennell.

Masters made quick work of his first set to take it 11-1. Broad fought back in the second and third sets but it was not enough and Masters was able to close out both sets 11-5.

In a revisit of last years qualifying, Jones and Mennell were back facing each other, with Jones again taking the win in 3. There were some long rallies with Mennell chasing down the ball and keeping himself in the hunt, however Jones was able to dominate the tee and keep moving Mennell around the court, closing out the match in just 19 minutes, 11-5, 11-4, 11-8.

The second round of games saw another local player, Josh Parkhill, against Ireland’s Sean Conroy. While Parkhill was giving his all on the court, Conroy was too strong and showed superb reading of the play to be waiting for Parkhill’s shots and put them away. Conroy slotted several nicks, played with precision, and took the match 11-5, 11-7, 11-6 in 19 minutes.

Daniel Mekbib of the Czech Republic got a free pass through to the second round due to local junior player Mitchell Kempton having to default due to injury.

The final round of games for tonight saw New Zealanders Chris van der Salm and Sion Wiggin on court 3, and fellow New Zealander Scott Galloway against Malaysia’s Sanjay Singh.

Van der Salm looked very much in control during the first set, taking it 11-4. Wiggin came back harder in the second, taking an early lead but van der Salm retained his composure and came back to take the set 11-9. The third set started point for point before van der Salm again took control, closing out the match 11-6 in the third.

The final match proved to be the match of the night with young Scott Galloway from Wellington managing to sneak his way through to the second round, with a massive 5 set win over Sanjay Singh. Galloway took the first set 11-8 and looked set to extend his lead in the second being up 10-7 before Singh managed to claw his way back in and take it 13-11. Singh followed this up with a dominant third set. Galloway came back fighting in the fourth, managing to get an early lead then kept working hard to take the set 11-7. The fifth set saw both players give it their all with score seesawing back and forth as they jostled for the lead, with Galloway coming out on top 11-9.

Livestreaming of the matches continue Wednesday night with qualification rounds and links to the court can be found here or below in this article.

Check out the schedule of play for the Livestreaming of the 2017 ILT Community Trust NZ Southern Invercargill Open here:

• Streaming Invercargill Wednesday

Full details on the event can be found here and the final qualifying round matchups can be found below.

Round 1 Results:

(6) Bradley Masters (ENG) bt Matty Broad (NZL) 11-1, 11-5, 11-5 (17 minutes)
(5) Luke Jones (NZL) bt Adrian Mennell (NZL) 11-5, 11-4, 11-8 (19 minutes)
(4) Sean Conroy (IRE) bt Josh Parkhill (NZL) 11-5, 11-7, 11-6 (19 minutes)
(3) Daniel Mekbib (CZE) won by default
Chris van der Salm (NZL) bt (8) Sion Wiggin (NZL) 11-4, 11-9, 11-6 (23 minutes)
Scott Galloway (NZL) bt (7) Sanjay Singh (MAS) 11-8, 11-13, 5-11, 11-7, 11-9 (45 minutes)

ILT Community Trust NZ Southern Invercargill Open - Final Qualifying Round
Court 4

5.30pm Joe Green (ENG) vs (5) Luke Jones (NZL)
6.30pm (6) Bradley Masters (ENG) vs (3) Daniel Mekbib (CZE)
7.30pm (4) Sean Conroy (IRE) vs Scott Galloway (NZL)
8.30pm Chris van der Salm (NZL) vs (2) Matias Tuomi (FIN)