Squashways Christchurch Open 2016
14-19 Jun, New Zealand, $10k

19-Jun, Final:
It's Coll in three ...
Antony Liken reports

A packed crowd was in attendance to watch the final of the Christchurch PSA held at the Burnside Squash Club this afternoon.

Local home-town favourite Paul Coll, the NZ Number #1 and top seed was up against the third seeded Englishman Angus Gillams.

Coll started the first game slowly, with Gillams hitting a couple of deceptive winners and Coll making some uncharacteristic errors for Gillams to take an early 4/1 lead.

But Coll improved his accuracy and was soon dominating the court to close the gap, however Gillams did fight back and they traded point for point to reach 7/7. After that however Coll tightened his grip on the game and forced a couple of mistakes from the left-handed Englishman and Coll took the first game 11/7.

The second game Coll simply dominated, he sped to the ball seeming to read Gillams drop-shots easily and then punished them with attacking crosscourts or counterdrops. Before we knew it the game was over at 11/2.

The third game was more of the same, Coll continued to dominate and despite some late resistance from Gillams, Coll continued his march to victory taking the game 11/5.

A 10th PSA victory for Paul Coll and his second in Christchurch.

Draw & Results

Match Replays

Qualifying:

15-Jun, Finals:

Mohd Syafiq Kamal (Mas) 3-0 Jackson Beresford (Nzl)       11/4, 11/4, 11/2 (19m)
Ben Grindrod (Nzl) 3-1 Chang Wook Woo (Kor)       12/10, 11/9, 8/11, 11/7 (45m)
Eain Yow Ng (Mas) 3-0 Oliver Johnston (Nzl)                   11/4, 11/7, 11/6 (23m)
Ashley Davies (Eng) 3-1 Rhys Dowling (Aus)          10/12, 11/7, 11/4, 11/1

14-Jun Round One: 

Mohd Syafiq Kamal (Mas) 3-1 Luke Jones (Nzl)        11/9, 10/12, 11/8, 11/2 (38m)
Jackson Beresford (Nzl) 3-1 Elliot Selby (Eng)           11/7, 9/11, 11/9, 11/9 (31m)
Chang Wook Woo (Kor) 3-1 Jason van der Walt (Nzl)  11/4, 11/6, 9/11, 11/7 (30m)
Eain Yow Ng (Mas) 3-1 Chris vander Salm (Nzl)       11/8, 10/12, 11/3, 11/4 (34m)
Oliver Johnston (Nzl) 3-1 David Clegg (Aus)            11/7, 7/11, 11/4, 12/10 (43m)
Rhys Dowling (Aus) 3-0 Sion Wiggin (Nzl)                        11/7, 11/8, 11/3 (24m)

 TAGS :   2015 Event | Christchurch | New Zealand | Search

18-Jun, Semis:
Coll and Gillams through to final
Antony Liken reports

The Burnside Squash Club was packed this evening for the first semi-final between NZ Number 1 and World Ranked #34 Paul Coll and Peter Creed the 4th seeded Welshman.

The match began with a series of long rallies with Coll working Creed around and out of position and then finishing off the rallies, he dominated and took the first 5 points. From there it was a safe first game for Coll, taking it comfortably 11/5.

The second and third games were equally convincing, Coll continued at a relentless pace and there didn’t seem to be anything the Welshman could do but bravely chase the balls down but to no avail.

It was a real masterclass from Coll and showed the improvement he has definitely made in the last 12 months, the finish came rather quickly, a brisk 31 minutes.

"Very happy to be playing at home in NZ and in front of my family and friends in Christchurch," said Coll. "I'm feeling relaxed and enjoying being back."

The second match between two Englishman looked likely to be a close affair and so it proved.

Josh Masters the tall shot maker continued his cracking form from last night and build a great lead in the first game, some of his winners were truly impressive, the steadier left-hander Angus Gillams didn’t seem to have an answer and Masters took the first game quite easily at 11/6.

But Gillams fought back in the second and third games, Masters seemed to fall off his game a little, the winners from the first game turning to errors in the next two.

Gillams took the advantage 2/1 and it was up to Masters to respond and so he did, the fourth game was more magic from Masters and he really dominated finishing off many of the rallies with great winners to take the match into a decider. Yet again Masters continued his top form and at 7/4 it looked like he was in control. Gillams however had other ideas and with a gutsy display grafted his way back to take the lead, Masters perhaps looking a bit tired fell into some further errors.

Suddenly Gillams was ahead and had his first match ball at 10/8 … after a shortish rally Masters played a volley to the front corner, Gillams counter-dropped and when the ball jagged out from the corner Masters couldn’t get past Gillams, he asked for the let and a controversial call of no let was given, both players appearing shocked at the decision but the game was over, Gillams was in the final. 

"New Zealand is different to what I expected," said Gillams. "I'm enjoying it. I haven't been playing as well as I was before coming here and today was the best so far. Looking forward to the final tomorrow."
 

Draw & Results

Match Replays

17-Jun, Quarters:
Coll joins three Brits in Christchurch semis
Antony Liken reports

An exciting night of squash from the Burnside Squash Club with local favourite Paul Coll, the top seed on first against James Huang of Chinese Taipei.

Coll was slow to start and made a couple of early mistakes to be down 4/1 in the first. However he soon established a good length and forced mistakes from his opponent to make up the deficit. He continued to force the pace, taking the ball very early and closed out the first game comfortably at 11/6. The next two games were similar, Coll pushing his opponent all around the court and then finishing off with some deft winners, and the 3 game match was over quite quickly, Coll comfortably through to the semis.

The next match between Josh Larkin of Australia and Peter Creed of Wales, the 4th seed was a complete contrast to the first match and was tense right through the 84 minute five-setter. The first two games were close but the Welshman seemed to be in control and took a 2/0 lead, maybe this was to be another 3/0 win?

Not so, the Australian Larkin fought back brilliantly and there were some moments of high drama and tension in the next 2 games and some very acrobatic efforts by Creed as he attempted to retrieve shots from all over the court. It was destined for a 5th set finale with Creed taking an upper hand as the Australian Larkin made a couple of unforced errors.

It went close but Creed always seemed to be just ahead and closed out the final game 11/7 … a fantastic match to watch.

Angus Gillams the English 3rd seed started off strongly in his first game and had the better of Kiwi opponent Lance Beddoes who made a few errors and was always a bit behind, he lost the first 11/8. However Beddoes came out firing in the 2nd, hit some great winners and took a surprising 7-0 lead, but this was not to last for long. The Englishman fought back to close the gap and take it into a long tiebreak, the lead changed hands a number of times before Beddoes finally took the game 17/15 to tie the match up and 1/1.

The next two games however were decisive, left-handed Gillams took control of the match with some great drops and tight drives particularly on his forehand, Beddoes had no real answers and the match finished quite quickly 11/2, 11/2 after the marathon 2nd set.

The final match was great to watch with the powerful attacking Englishman Josh Masters playing the 2nd seeded Malaysian Ivan Yuen. The first game went close with Masters taking it narrowly. Yuen fought back in the 2nd and seemed to take control of the match taking it 11/6 with Masters making a number of errors in his effort to hit winners. However Masters came out firing and hit some amazingly clean winners when given the opportunity in the 3rd, it was close again but Masters just got there 11/9.

Masters seemed to take confidence from this and built a good lead in the 4th, at 10/4 it was always going to be a tough task for the Malaysian to fight back and so it proved, Masters taking the final point with a stroke at the front of the court. A bit of an upset there and the bottom half of the draw now fairly open.

Looking forward to some great semis tomorrow!
 

Draw & Results

Match Replays