Top Seed And Top Kiwi Junior To Meet In Final

The top seed and the top Kiwi junior will meet in the final of the US$5,000 Court Tech PSA Women’s Classic at Squash XL Club in Avondale, Auckland.

Both had to battle in their semfinals to make the title match with top seed and world No.53 Christine Nunn from Australia take a lengthy 44 minutes to defeat fourth seed Jemyca Aribado (Philippines) ranked 90th .

In front of a good crowd including participants in the Auckland Junior champs at the same venue the first semifinal featured plenty of strategic rallies before Nunn won the opening game 11-7 and then dominated the second game 11-3.

However the third game had Aribado claw her way back into the match, including finding herself sprawled on the floor on several occasions. She fought her way to 10-10 before taking the game 14-12.

The fourth game showed the fitness and finesse of Nunn who won it and the match 11-7.

Nunn, 27 now takes on to Kiwi junior Kaitlyn Watts for the title after the 17-year-old beat compatriot Abbie Palmer in four games.

Palmer took the first in relatively easy fashion 11-6, but then Watts showed her game fitness and won the following three games 11-6, 11-5, 11-9 to take the match in 31 minutes. Watts has a current PSA women’s ranking of 119 and will find Nunn a real test for her fledging pro career.

Watts and Palmer have been using the tournament as a build up to the NZ nationals in Auckland next month which will feature names such Joelle King, Amanda Landers-Murphy and Paul Coll.

semifinal results:

(1) Christine Nunn (Australia) bt (4) Jemyca Aribado (Philippines) 11-7, 11-3, 12-14, 11-7 (44 minutes),

(5) Kaitlyn Watts (New Zealand) bt (3) Abbie Palmer (New Zealand) 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-9 (31 mins).

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