Cape Town, Western Cape: Northerns top seed Awande Malinga confirmed her status as the U19 title favourite when she outclassed Nicola Bentley on the second day of the Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals squash championships at the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town on Friday.
Playing in pool A after the playoffs on the opening day on Thursday, the impressive Malinga was seldom troubled by her KwaZulu-Natal opponent and was able to display an array of attacking strokes in her 3-0 win.
Other U19 pool A match, Ashton Weir (Northerns) had to overcome spirited resistance from Rachel Shannon (Joburg Squash) before joining Malinga in the undefeated category.
After taking the first two games comfortable, Weir found her opponent upping the intensity in the third game as Shannon gave herself a glimmer of hope by winning it 11-9.
However, a few errors crept into the Joburg player’s game in the fourth and although it was a tough battle all the way, Weir eventually got home by taking it 11-7.
Top U19 boys seed Damian Groenewald (Northerns) continued his comfortable march with his third straight games win, this time handling the challenge of Diodivine Mkhize (Joburg Squash).
On Thursday, Mkhize had given second seed Seth Flisberg (WP) a hard time, but he could not match Groenewald’s allround game and control around the court.
Flisberg, himself, delivered an impressive display as he notched his second win of the tournament with a 3-0 result against Boland’s Daniel Cloete. If he manages to maintain that sort of momentum the U19 section could be building to thrilling climax on Sunday afternoon.
In the U17 boys’ division, Connor Earl (Border) also stayed on the winning track, although he was pushed hard by Patrick Weir (Northerns) despite the margin of 3-0.
Weir had beaten Connor’s brother, Matthew, on Thursday but this time he just could not finish off the first two games which he lost 12-10 and 11-9. He was still very much in the match, but Connor eventually took control to win the third 11-7.
Devon Osborne (Boland) also gave himself a boost when he defeated WP’s Hector Durbach 3-0 in the second pool A match.
In the girls’ U17 group, Cara Knott (Border) and Dene van Zyl (WP) set the pace with comfortable victories over Cevana Naidoo (KZN) and Bianke Pienaar (Joburg Squash) respectively.
There were some good contests in the boys’ U15 section, with both Christian Swanepoel (Boland) and Juan-Corne Brand (Northerns) winning in four games.
Swanepoel faced WP’s Thomas Boutall and there was everything to play for after they split the first two games by scorelines of 11-8. But then Swanepoel got his nose ahead for an important victory.
Brand also dropped the second game against EP’s Benji Newman but, like Swanepoel, he was able to impose his brand of play on the match to take the next two games 11-7 and 11-2.
The results were:
Girls
U15
Pool A: Makayla Naidoo (KZN) bt Kate van Biljon (Border) 3-0 (11-6 11-4 13-11), Elzandri Janse van Rensburg (Northerns) bt Starla Phillips (Northerns) 3-0 (11-4 11-4 11-7)
Pool B: Riley Slade (WP) bt Amy Shannon (Joburg Squash) 3-1 (11-6 7-11 11-5 11-7), Rebecca Vos (Boland) bt Anushka Janse van Rensburg (Northerns) 3-2 (8-11 11-9 11-8 7-11 11-6)
U17
Pool A: Cara Knott (Border) bt Cevana Naidoo (KZN) 3-0 (11-6 11-6 11-4), Dene van Zyl (WP) bt Bianke Pienaar (Joburg Squash) 3-0 (11-4 11-5 11-7)
Pool B: Chante Leppan (Northerns) bt Namratha Niranjan (Northerns) 3-0 (11-8 11-1 11-3), Anel Marais (Boland) bt Sasha Earl (Border) 3-0 (11-9 11-5 11-6)
U19
Pool A: Awande Malinga (Northerns) bt Nicola Bentley (KZN) 3-0 (11-7 11-3 11-6), Ashton Weir (Northerns) bt Rachel Shannon (Joburg Squash) 3-1 (11-3 11-6 9-11 11-7)
Pool B: Erin Powers (EP) bt Rebecca Glanvill (WP) 3-0 (11-9 11-9 11-9), Jeanne Craig (Northerns) bt Stephanie Jones (Easterns) 3-2 (11-7 11-3 6-11 6-11 11-3)
Boys
U15
Pool A: Christian Swanepoel (Boland) bt Thomas Boutall (WP) 3-1 (11-8 8-11 11-7 11-9), Juan-Corne Brand (Northerns) bt Benji Newman (EP) 3-1 (11-2 7-11 11-7 11-2)
Pool B: Aiden McNeill (KZN) bt Joseph Myers (Northerns) 3-0 (11-4 11-6 13-11), Juan van der Merwe (Border) bt Savuta Nkuna (Joburg Squash) 3-0 (11-7 11-3 11-8)
U17
Pool A: Connor Earl (Border) bt Patrick Weir (Northerns) 3-0 (12-10 11-9 11-7), Devon Osborne (Boland) bt Hector Durbach (WP) 3-0 (12-10 11-7 11-2)
Pool B: Matthew Earl (Border) bt Judah Phillips (Northerns) 3-1 (11-4 8-11 11-6 11-4), Judah Phillips (Northerns) bt Matt Mason (KZN) 3-0 (11-7 11-4 11-5)
U19: 1-Damian Groenewald (Northerns) bt 3-Diodivine Mkhize (Joburg Squash) 3-0 (11-7 11-3 11-4), Seth Flisberg (WP) bt Daniel Cloete (Boland) 3-0 (11-6 11-5 11-3), Diodivine Mkhize (Joburg Squash) bt Nikhil Pather (KZN) 3-0 (11-6 11-1 11-0),
Ends
FREE TO USE PICTURE
Caption
Junior Nationals 2022 Awande Malinga front v Nicola Bentley: Northerns player plays a forearm drive in her match against KwaZulu-Natal’s Nicola Bentley on the second day of the Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals squash championships at the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town on Friday. Malinga won 3-0.
Picture credits: Carl Fourie
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