Kiwis enjoy good first day at World Junior Squash Champs

New Zealand’s enjoyed a strong opening day at the World Junior Squash Championships in Tauranga with three of the women and three of the men winning in straight sets.

Women’s coach Joanne Williams was thrilled at the positive start. “I’m really pleased with how the girls have prepared themselves and gone about their business. We expected to win the games we won, but that’s on paper, you still have to do it.”

Rotorua’s Camden Te Kani-McQueen kicked things off with straight sets win against Australia’s Jessica Osborne, a performance New Zealand No1 Kaitlyn Watts backed up later in the day when she also overpowered Australia’s Courtney Mathers in three.

Waikato’s Anika Jackson was just as convincing against Switzerland’s Sarah Ludin.

“We knew a bit about the Australians but the Swiss girl was an unknown so it was god to get that win,” Williams said.

Earlier Auckland’s Anna Hughes lost in straight sets to Hong Kong’s Lui Hiu Lam and Hastings’ Rhiarne Taiapa was beaten in three by England’s Elise Lazarus, while Rotorua’s Nadia Hubbard lost in four to South Africa’s Faith Sithole.

In the men’s draw Gabe Yam got the tournament off to a winning start for New Zealand with a straightforward win against Australia's Jacob Ford before Mitchell Kempton beat South Africa’s Luke van Vuuren in three.

New Zealand’s No1 Finn Trimble dropped only seven points on his way to an emphatic win against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Abdulmajeed Boureggah but he has a tougher game tomorrow against the seeded Englishman Adam Corcoran.

The other Kiwi men on show, Quinn Udy, Matthew Lucente and Lwamba Chileshe all lost.

Men’s coach Glen Wilson said Trimble’s win was a good one, especially as it was on the all glass court which played differently to the traditional concrete courts.

“He’s playing well. He dominated his man today from the start and he’ll take a lot of confidence from that into tomorrow.

“The standard is pretty high and the three wins we got were pretty comfortable ones and the losses were probably expected. It’s probably been a fair day.”

Elsewhere the international top seeds all won through to the second round.

Court being livestreamed are below:

• QEYC Glass Court 
• Devoy Court 1
• Devoy Court 2

The schedule of play for day 1 can be found below. Click below to watch the matches live or rewatch the matches.

Good luck to all our representatives and we look forward to following your progress. All details, photos etc. on the New Zealand players can be found here. All details on the event can be found on the official event website here.

Round 1 Main Draw Results

• QEYC Glass Court - Gabe Yam (NZL) bt Jacob Ford (AUS) - 11-1, 11-5, 11-8 - 0:24mins
• Devoy Court 1 - Mitchell Kempton (NZL) bt Luke Van Vuuren (RSA) - 11-6, 11-3, 11-8 - 0:26mins
• QEYC Glass Court – Camden Te Kani-McQueen (NZL) bt Jessica Osborne (AUS) - 11-9, 11-2, 11-8 - 0:18mins
• Devoy Court 2 - Zeeshan Zeb (PAK) bt Lwamba Chileshe (NZL) - 15-13, 11-5, 11-9 - 0:45mins

Byes

• Finn Trimble
• Matthew Lucente
• Quinn Udy
• Kaitlyn Watts
• Anika Jackson
• Rhiarne Taiapa
• Nadia Hubbard
• Anna Hughes

Round 2 Main Draw Results

• QEYC Glass Court – Adhitya Raghavan [5/8] (IND) bt Matthew Lucente (NZL) - 11-9, 11-8, 11-5 - 0:30mins
• QEYC Glass Court – Finn Trimble (NZL) bt Abdulmajeed Boureggah (SAU) - 11-1, 11-4, 11-2 - 0:17mins
• QEYC Glass Court – Lui Hiu Lam [9/12] (HKG) bt Anna Hughes (NZL) - 11-2, 11-8, 11-0 - 0:17mins
• QEYC Glass Court – Kaitlyn Watts (NZL) bt Courtney Mather (AUS) - 11-4, 11-2, 11-6 - 0:18mins
• Devoy Court 1 - Inaki De Larrauri (COL) bt Quinn Udy (NZL) - 11-4, 7-11, 11-2, 5-11, 11-6 - 0:51mins
• Devoy Court 2 – Elise Lazarus [9/12] (ENG) bt Rhiarne Taiapa (NZL) - 11-5, 11-6, 11-1 - 0:18mins
• QEYC Glass Court – Anika Jackson (NZL) bt Sarah Ludin (SUI) - 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 - 0:19mins
• Devoy Court 1 - Faith Panashe Sithole (RSA) bt Nadia Hubbard (NZL) - 11-8, 10-12, 11-2, 11-6 - 0:24mins
• Devoy Court 1 - Mohammad Al Sarraj [2] (JOR) bt Mitchell Kempton (NZL) - 5-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-3 - 0:30mins
• QEYC Glass Court – Abhay Singh [5/8] (IND) bt Gabe Yam (NZL) - 11-6, 11-6, 11-9 - 0:28mins
• QEYC Glass Court – Nada Abbas [3/4] (EGY) bt Camden Te Kani- Mcqueen (NZL) - 11-6, 11-4, 11-9

Round 3 Main Draw 

• 11:40am - QEYC Glass Court – Adam Corcoran [13/16] (ENG) vs Finn Trimble
• 1:40pm - QEYC Glass Court – Anika Jackson (NZL) vs Sivasangari Subramaniam [5/8] (MAS)
• 5:40pm - QEYC Glass Court – Kaitlyn Watts (NZL) vs Chan Yiwen [13/16] (MAS)

Men's 33-64

• 12:20pm - Devoy Court 2 – Quinn Udy (NZL) vs Miguel Gonzalo Pujol (ARG)
• 12:20pm - William Curtis (Aus) vs Mitchell Kempton (NZL)
• 1pm - Devoy Court 2 – Juan Barreyro (PAR) vs Matthew Lucente (NZL)
• 2:20pm - Devoy Court 2 – Gabe Yam (NZL) vs Martin Rios (COL)

Women's Plate Draw

• 6:20pm - Rhiarne Taiapa (NZL) vs Lujan Palacios (PAR)
• 7pm - Devoy Court 2 – Kacenka Tycova (GER) vs Anna Hughes (NZL) 
• 7pm - Nadia Hubbard (NZL) vs Sanya Vats (IND)