Men's final
Auckland beat Wellington 3 - 1
Kashif Shuja beat Evan Williams 14/12 11/5 11/4
Alex Grayson beat Shane Johnston 9/11 11/7 11/4 7/11 14/12
Andre Wagenaar beat Michael Pittams 19/17 11/4 11/6
Lance Beddoes lost Corey Love 11/7 11/5 11/3

Women's final
Waikato beat Wellington 2 - 2, 9 - 8
Joelle King beat Tamsyn Leevey 11/2 11/6 12/10
Kylie Lindsay beat Emma Millar 4/11 11/8 9/11 4/11 11/8
Kay Newman lost Eliza Sim 11/9 11/8 4/11 11/5
Alana Sincock lost Rebecca Barnett 9/11 1/11 11/6 13/11 11/9

Final placings...
Men
1. Auckland
2. Wellington
3. Bay of Plenty
4. Canterbury
5. Central
6. Waikato
7. Southland

Women
1. Waikato
2. Wellington
3. Auckland
4. Central
5. Canterbury
6. Bay of Plenty

Semi-Finals:

Kashif Shuja bt Alex Grayson 11-3 11-8 11-6 (34m)
George Crosby bt Oliver Johnston 11-5 12-14 11-5 11-5 (54m)

Jaclyn Hawkes bt Tamsyn Leevey 11-2 11-8 11-3 (21m)
Joelle King bt Megan Craig 11-2 11-4 11-2 (18m)

Shuja aims for fifth,
new women's champion assured

World number 16 Jaclyn Hawkes has her sights set on her first national title when she takes on Joelle King in the final of the Inspire.Net New Zealand Squash Championships in Palmerston North tomorrow.

Hawkes wants to finish her stint in New Zealand on a high note before she heads back to her base in Halifax, England on Monday.

The pair meet in the final for the first time, with King the victor in five games in their only previous match in the Mitchell Cup earlier this year.

The men’s final will be an all-Remuera club battle between the number one seed Kashi Shuja, chasing his fifth title in six years, against 30-year-old George Crosby, in his first New Zealand Championship final.

Crosby, the seventh seed, prevailed in four games over Dunedin’s Oliver Johnston while Shuja was too strong for the national under-19 champion Alex Grayson from West Auckland 11-3 11-8 11-6 in 34 minutes.

Hawkes,26, proved too strong for the 2006 world doubles champion Tamsyn Leevey (Wellington), playing error-free squash to win in straight games 11-2 11-8 11-3 while King overwhelmed 16-year-old Blenheim player, Megan Craig in three games lasting just 18 minutes.

Hawkes, who heads back for the British Open in two weeks, was delighted that she came up against Leevey, the fourth seed, who is making a comeback to the game after two years away.

“I was pleased to play someone pretty good today in the semifinal. Although Tamsyn is not yet back on the pace that she used to be, she is still a good player. I had to play well to beat her,” Hawkes said.

“If I had played loosely she was good enough to cause me plenty of trouble. Sometimes if you play all easy matches, you get to the final you are not on the pace. Tamsyn gets a lot of balls back so that was good for me to get into some good, long rallies.

“I played well tonight to win by that score. I didn’t make many mistakes. The key was my length today.”

Hawkes has returned over recent years for the New Zealand Open, losing to Shelley Kitchen in the final last year and in 2006, missing the 2007 event because of illness.

King has not required more than 20 minutes in any match this weekend, and has not dropped a single game along the way.

The world number 39 was in confident mood winning 11-2 11-4 11-2 against the youngster who is 150 places behind King in the world rankings.

Craig, the national junior representative, had earlier shown a glimpse of her potential and fighting qualities when she upset the third seed and world top-50 player, Kylie Lindsay (Matamata) in a five-game quarterfinal. The diminutive Marlborough teenager came from 2-1 down to win the last two games 12-10 and 13-11 for the best win of her young career.

Crosby, who has competed at the national championships for 12 years, will contest his first final. The 30-year-old proved too steady for Dunedin’s Oliver Johnston winning in four games 11-5 12-14 11-5 11-5 in just under an hour.

It was doubly satisfying for the 30-year-old who has returned to the game in the last year after working overseas.

“To make the finals for the first time feels great, especially after only getting back into the game this year,” Crosby said.

“The key tonight was my consistency. I kept error free and he started to make some mistakes which is where I picked up some easy points.

“I hit a good length and tried to tie him into the back corners and force him to go for some shots that were not on.”

He will find the task very tough against the in-form, number one seed, Shuja who took a little over half an hour to dismantle Grayson. Shuja, the world number 39, was never behind in the count throughout in an emphatic display.
 

Ian Hepenstall reports

The new shining star of New Zealand squash, Joelle King is looking to cap off a golden run of form in the New Zealand Championships in Palmerston North this week.

King, recent winner of the Australian Open and quarterfinalist at the gold star New Zealand Open last weekend, is keen to continue the roll in pursuit of her first national elite honours.

With the absence of defending champion Shelley Kitchen, out of the game after the announcement that she is expecting her first child, King becomes pre-tournament favourite along with world number 16 Jaclyn Hawkes.

The 20 year old from Hamilton is beginning to realise her undoubted potential. She jumped from 56 in the world to 39 after a brilliant run of three wins across the Tasman - at the New South Wales Open, Victorian Open and the Australian Open. In the process of that final win she beat world number 12 Kasey Brown (Australia) and number 14 Annie Au (Hong Kong).

The new ranking ensured a solid draw in the qualifying rounds of her first start in a WISPA gold star world tour event at the New Zealand Open last weekend. She worked her way past kiwi junior Lana Harrison (Auckland) in straight games 11-5, 11-1, 11-0 and came from 2-0 down to beat world number 29 Donna Urquhart (Australia) in five games to make the main draw.

If that did not open the door to the squash world, King fair kicked it down when she upset former world number one and third seed Rachael Grinham 11-9 11-8 11-9 to advance to the quarterfinals. While the fairytale run came to an end against the unorthodox Egyptian Omneya Abdel Kawy, King's performances should mean she will move into the world's top 30 next month.

Now she wants to cap it off with her first New Zealand elite title at the Inspire Net-sponsored championship in Palmerston North starting on Friday.

"I've come a long way in a few weeks and I am proud of what I have achieved.

"People have always told me I could be the next Leilani or Susan or whatever. This year I have put in the hard work and have the belief now as a result of that hard work.

"They always talk about getting a win over one of those top players and then you don't look back. That tournament in Australia beating three good players is the breakthrough I needed. Last weekend at Mt Maunganui was amazing.

"Squash women don't usually mature until their late 20s. I've always had the game but that's not much good if you can't get to the ball. This year I put in some hard, hard work. You can tell. I am a lot leaner, a lot fitter and a lot stronger. As a result I think I am mentally a lot tougher.

"I firmly believe now that I can become a top-10 player in the world and even world number one."

England-based Hawkes will be chasing her first major victory on home soil while there will be interest in the efforts of Wellington's Tamsyn Leevey, the 2006 Commonwealth Games silver medallist and former world top-25 ranked player.

There's a raft of younger players looking to push their chances including England-based Kylie Lindsay, the current world No 49 and a number of the leading juniors including Lana Harrison (Auckland), Jackie Laurenson (Ohakune), Amanda Landers-Murphy (Rotorua) and Megan Craig (Blenheim).

Auckland's Kashif Shuja, world number 39, is chasing his fifth title in six years and is the overwhelming favourite ahead of Manawatu international Josh Greenfield.

Others pushing for semifinals will include 26 year old Graeme Wilson, world number 160, and fellow Aucklander Alex Grayson, the under-19 national champion was a semifinalst at the North Islands.