Seeds Through At Pro Squash Event In Invercargill

All eight seeds have progressed with relative ease in to the quarter-finals of the US$10,000 2018 Invercargill Licensing Trust and Community Trust NZ Southern Squash Open tournament held at Squash City, Invercargill

In first round action the top seed, Ivan Yuen of Malaysia defeated countryman Syraf Azan who had come through qualifying in a lengthy straight game match with the final game 14-12 and a total of 45 minutes. Yuen will now face fifth seed Victor Crouin of France in a bid to make the semifinals.

Crouin had earlier beaten another Malaysian, Darren Rahul Pragasam in four games in his first round.

One of the many Commonwealth Games players in the tournament, Kiwi seventh seed ranked 108 in the world, Evan Williams from Wellington dropped his first game against Irish qualifier Sean Conroy 6-11, but then quickly found his length again to take the remaining three games 11-5, 11-6, 11-2.

Williams, the beaten finalist at last week’s New Zealand nationals will take on fourth seed Angus Gillams ranked 83 in the world in the next round after the Englishman beat a Japanese qualifier in his match.

In the bottom half of the draw there are three Australians and one Malaysian taking the four spots available.

Third seed Josh Larkin will play countryman and sixth seed Rhys Dowling to decide a semifinal place.

Larkin had a four game win over an Indian qualifier while Dowling won in straight games over Kiwi qualifier Luke Jones (Palmerston North) 11-9, 11-9, 11-7. Jones looked down the barrel of a quick defeat after Dowling raced to an 8-0 lead, but the Kiwi won the next seven points to make the make a contest on the scoreboard and from then on the contest was close fought.

The remaining quarter-final has second seed Rex Hedrick up against Malaysian eighth seed Addeen Idrakie. Both players are in good form in Australasian tournaments at present and had solid victories in their first round.

Idrakie defeated Englishman Joe Green in straight games while Hedrick accounted for Kiwi Scott Galloway (Wellington) 11-5, 11-9, 11-7

The tournament continues until Sunday afternoon 24 June.  The event will be live streamed HERE and on SquashCity Facebook page.

First round results:

(1) (1)Ivan Yuen(Malaysia) bt (Q)Asyraf Azan(Malaysia) 11-2, 11-5, 14-12 (45 minutes),

(5)Victor Crouin(France) bt Darren Rahul Pragasam(Malaysia) 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 11-5 (40 minutes),

(7)Evan Williams(New Zealand) bt Sean Conroy(Ireland) 6-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-2 (38 minutes),

(4)Angus Gillams(England) bt (Q)Ryunosuke Tsukue(Japan) 13-11, 11-8, 11-6 (34 minutes),

(3)Josh Larkin(Australia) bt (Q)Velavan Senthilkumar(India) 11-8, 11-4, 8-11, 11-2 (40 minutes),

(6)Rhys Dowling(Australia) bt (Q)Luke Jones(New Zealand) 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 (24 minutes),

(8)Addeen Idrakie(Malaysia) bt Joe Green(England) 7-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 (40 minutes),

(2)Rex Hedrick(Australia) bt (WC)Scott Galloway (New Zealand) 11-5, 11-9, 11-7 (30 minutes).