New Zealand Doubles Round One

New Zealand Doubles Round One

The Big Barrel New Zealand Doubles Championships kicked off at SquashGym, Palmerston North on Friday with 140 of New Zealand’s top players looking to make their mark on the national scene early in 2016.

Matches have gone to seeding early across the Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Open draws on the opening night.

In the Men’s Open top seeds Evan Williams and Lance Beddoes had an easy first round victory over local players Rob Brownrigg and Geoff Spencer. They will now play local doubles specialists Jason Burton Brown and Croydon Rutherford in the quarter finals. Burton Brown and Rutherford may prove to be awkward opponents for the top seeds as they are an established combination and finished fourth in the 2014 Nationals Doubles amongst a good field.

In the Women’s Open the top seeds also dominated with the exception of local player Kaitlyn Watts and her partner Casey Owen upsetting fourth seeds Holly Donnelly and Joanna Shanks in two sets. They will now play top seeds Joelle King and Amanda Landers-Murphy in the semi-finals. The other semi-final should be a great match with last year’s champions and third seeds Danielle Fourie and Rebecca Barnett taking on Megan Craig and Shelley Kitchen. Kitchen and Craig had a moment of uncertainty in their match where they lost the second game however they came out firing in the third game and never looked back showing their strength.

The Mixed Open continued the form line with no major upsets in round one. The match of round two should be last year’s champions Zac and Emma Millar taking on Scott Galloway and Shelley Kitchen.

Play gets underway from 9:30am tomorrow with the Mixed final at 3.30pm, Women’s 4.30pm and Men’s final 5pm. Entry is free for all spectators.

Men’s Open

Evan Williams/Lance Beddoes beat Rob Brownrigg/Geoff Spencer 11 – 1, 11 – 4

Jason Burton Brown/Croydon Rutherford beat Stephen Bennett/Matt Ratcliffe Walk over

Scott Gardiner/Jason Oxenham beat Taylor Leabourne/Ben Calvert 11 – 10, 11 – 4

Kashif Shuja/Victor Romero beat Duncan Smeaton/Grant Slape 11-3, 11-2

Zac Millar/Richard Pittams beat David Greer/Myles Price Moor 11-4, 11-4

Scott Galloway/Corey Love beat Jason Fletcher/Aaron Havill 11-4, 11-7

Willie Bicknell/Sam Atkins beat Corbin Faint/Brandon Keenan 9-11, 11-4, 11-9

Chris van der Salm/Ben Grindrod beat Kobe Fleming/Gareth Fleming 11-0, 11-2

Women’s Open

(1) Joelle King/Amanda Landers-Murphy beat Rebecca Clifford/Diya Joukanii 11 – 1, 11 – 2

Kaitlyn Watts/Casey Owen beat (4) Holly Donnelly/Joanna Shanks 11 – 4, 11 – 9

(3) Danielle Fourie/Rebecca Barnett beat Courtney Trail/Anita Jackson 11 – 1, 11 – 2

(2) Megan Craig/Shelley Kitchen beat Annaleise Faint/Rhiarne Taiapa 11-1, 7-11, 11-1

Mixed Open

(1) Evan Williams/Joelle King beat (16) Ed Burston/Rachelle Seivers 11 – 2, 11 – 3

(9) Victor Romero/Danielle Fourie beat (8) Sam Atkins/Joanna Shanks 11 – 3, 11 – 7

(5) Zac Millar/Emma Millar beat (12) Jason Fletcher/Sally Stantiall 11 – 4, 11 – 2

(4) Scott Galloway/Shelley Kitchen beat (13) James Gould/Nicki Gibbs 11 – 3, 11 – 6

(3) Ben Grinrod/Megan Craig beat (14) Jordan Bell/Annaliese Faint 11 – 3, 11 – 5

(6) Willie Bicknell/Rebecca Barnett beat (11) Alan Bailey/Courtney Trail 11 – 4, 11 – 9

(7) Kashif Shuja/Holly Donnelly beat (10) Stephen Bennett/Rebecca Clifford 6 – 11, 11 – 8, 11 – 8

(2) Lance Beddoes/Amanda Landers Murphy beat (15) Daff Niles/Jackie Taylor 11 – 1, 11 - 1

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1605/Day_1_Womens_Draws.pdf

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1605/Day_1_Mens_Draws.pdf

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1605/Day_1_Mixed_Draws.pdf

ENDS

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