Cape Town – Boland’s Malherbe van Niekerk caused the only upset of the day as the Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals squash championships got off to a flying start at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town on Thursday.
The U17 and U19 age-groups are in action on the all-glass court at Makers Landing from Thursday to Saturday, with the Senior Nationals and the U15 division taking place from August 28 to 30.
Van Niekerk was seeded sixth in the boys’ U17 section and fully deserved his win over third seed Aiden McNeill of KwaZulu-Natal, who never gave up trying throughout a tough five games.
After splitting the first four games, it all boiled down to the decider, in which Van Niekerk seized the early advantage with some good strokeplay, pulling off a winning boast and a tight drop to set up a 9-6 lead.
Soon after that, he moved to match point and killed off the contest with an accurate drive to the back of the court to qualify for the top four.
The winners of Thursday’s matches will contest pool A in a round-robin format on Friday and Saturday, while the losers moved into pool B.
There was also a good contest in the girls’ U17 section when Border’s Kate van Biljon found herself in a proper arm wrestle against Vivienne van der Schyff of Free State.
Fourth seed Van Biljon won the first game 11-8 against the fifth seed, but Van der Schyff got back into the match by taking the second game with a similar margin.
There was not much to choose between the two players, and they were always within a few points of each other, although Van Biljon took a significant lead by winning the third game, also 11-8.
As they battled for supremacy, the Border player reached her first match point but put a lob out of court to go into a tiebreaker at 10-10.
Crucially, another Van der Schyff error gave Van Biljon her second match point, and this time she made no mistake to wrap up a thrilling contest.
Besides those two results, the day was sprinkled with interesting matches as the players fought to qualify for the top four.
The top seeds did not always have things their own way, but in the end, they were able to find their rhythm to vindicate their rankings.
For instance, Northerns’ Judah Phillips, U19 No 1, was pushed all the way by Boland’s Anrieg Small in the first game before winning it 11-9. He then got into his stride to drop only six more points.
Christian Swanepoel, the boys’ No. 1 seed from Eden, also had to work hard in his first game before subduing Milan Raffa of Northerns 11-9. But he began to establish his supremacy by taking the second 11-7 and coasted through the third for the loss of four points.
The qualifying round results were:
U17
Girls: 1-Makayla Naidoo (KZN) bt 8-Amelia Lubbe (Northerns) 3-0 (11-3 11-4 11-5), 2-Elzandri Janse van Rensburg (Northerns) bt 7-Hanrie Duits (Eden) 3-0 (11-7 11-4 11-6), 3-Starla Phillips (Northerns) bt 6-Tara Neville-Smyly (WP) 3-0 (11-2 11-6 11-4, 4-Kate van Biljon (Border) bt 5-Vivienne van der Schyff (Free State) 3-1 (11-8 8-11 11-8 12-10).
Boys: 1-Christian Swanepoel (Eden) bt 8-Milan Raffa (Northerns) 3-0 (11-9 11-7 11-4), 2-Dean Katzin (Free State) bt Logan Kidson (Northerns) 3-0 (11-7 11-8 11-7), 6-Malherbe van Niekerk (Boland) bt 3-Aiden McNeill (KZN) 3-2 (11-5 9-11 11-4 7-11 11-6), 4-Dylan Keswell (WP) bt 5-Luke Goldschmidt (EP) 3-0 (11-2 11-5 11-2).
U19
Women: 1-Dene van Zyl (Boland) bt 8-Katelyn Walland (EP) 3-0 (11-8 11-2 11-4), 2-Chante Leppan (Northerns) bt 7-Benedette van Tonder (Free State) 3-0 (11-0 11-1 11-4), 3-Brianna Robinson (Easterns) bt 6-Marlene van Wyk (Boland) 3-0 (11-7 11-4 11-1), 4-Cevana Naidoo (KZN) v 5-Lucy Malherbe (WP).
Men: 1-Judah Phillips (Northerns) bt 8-Anrieg Small (Boland) (11-9 11-1 11-5), 2-Thomas Boutall (WP) bt 7-Heinu van Jaarsveld (Joburg Squash) 3-0 (11-3 11-3 11-3), 3-Louis le Riche (Boland) bt Nicholas Basson (WP) 3-0 (11-9 11-4 11-6), 4-Benji Newman (EP) bt 5-Ruvay Ramdhin (KZN) 3-0 (11-9 11-6 11-5).
