Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa: Top seeds Elzandri Janse van Rensburg and Christian Swanepoel continued to impress on the second day of the Growthpoint South African Junior National Squash Championships at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town on Friday.
Playing in the U15 section, they both secured comfortable wins in the next phase of the competition, with Janse van Rensburg easing past Northerns colleague Starla Phillips in three games.
Swanepoel, from the Eden region in the Southern Cape, was also on song as he saw off the challenge of another Northerns player, Joseph Myers, also in three games.
Myers, though, put up spirited resistance but finally went down in a marathon third game 16-14 as Swanepoel eventually sealed the deal.
After Thursday’s opening round, which involved eight players in each section, the competitors have been split into two pools, the top four comprising pool A and the bottom four making up pool B.
They will play on a round-robin format to decide the champions on Sunday.
Janse van Rensburg was joined in the winning column by KZN’s Makayla Naidoo, who was equally effective in subduing the challenge of Border’s Kate van Biljon 3-0.
Aiden McNeill (KZN), who had a tough opening game on Thursday, came through nicely in the boys’ U15 pool A on Friday, getting past Milan Raffa (Northerns) in three games.
In the boys’ U17 pool A, the Northerns pair of Judah Phillips and Juan-Corne Brand emerged as the early frontrunners, but the competitiveness of this group was shown as they both needed four games to quell their opponents, Louis le Riche (Boland) and Hector Durbach (WP) respectively.
In late matches on Thursday, top U19 boys’ players Luhann Groenewald (Northerns) and Seth Flisberg (WP) showed they meant business with easy opening round wins. Groenewald overcame Kobus van der Walt (Eden) and Flisberg saw off Bryce Blomquist (KZN) in straight games.
These two contested the U17 final in 2021 and it would be no surprise to see them again featuring in the final showdown on Sunday.
Friday’s early second round results were:
Girls U15
Pool A: Elzandri Janse van Rensburg (Northerns) bt Starla Phillips (Northerns) 3-0 (11-6 11-6 11-1), Makayla Naidoo (KZN) bt Kate van Biljon (Border) 3-0 (11-7 11-8 11-7)
Pool B: Anushka Janse van Rensburg (Northerns) bt Danika Theron (Eden) 3-0 (11-5 12-10 11-5), Hanrie Duits (Eden) bt Tara Neville-Smyly (WP) 3-1 (11-8 9-11 11-6 11-8)
Girls U17: Cevanna Naidoo (KZN) bt Brianna Robinson (Eastern Gauteng) 3-1 (11-3 11-9 8-11 11-4), Chante Leppan (Northerns) bt Lucy Malherbe (WP) 3-0 (11-4 11-5 11-5), Cara Knott (Border) bt Sasha Earl (Border) 3-1 (11-8 11-6 5-11 11-5)
Girls U19
Pool B: Jordin Phillips (Northerns) bt Cailyn Nieuwoudt (WP) 3-0 (11-2 11-7 11-4), Ashton Weir (Northerns) bt Nicole Bentley (KZN) 3-1 (11-1 11-7 6-11 11-6)
Boys U15
Pool A: Christian Swanepoel (Eden) bt Joseph Myers (Northerns) 3-0 (11-3 11-2 16-14), Aiden McNeill (KZN) bt Milan Raffa (Northerns) 3-0 (11-4 12-10 11-4),
Pool B: Joshua Edwards (Border) bt Matthew Muller (EP) 3-0 (11-4 11-4 12-10), Ross Smorfitt (Eden) bt Savata Nkuna (Joburg Squash) 3-0 (11-8 11-4 11-5)
Boys U17
Pool A: Judah Phillips (Northerns) bt Louis le Riche (Boland) 3-1 (11-4 11-3 9-11 11-5), Juan-Corne Brand (Northerns) bt Hector Durbach (WP) 3-1 (7-11 11-6 11-8 11-9)
Pool B: Joel Rix (Free State) bt Tilak Nana (KZN) 3-1 (11-7 11-7 12-14 11-3), Carel Fronemann (Northerns) bt Russell Jones (Eastern Gauteng) 3-1 (12-14 11-4 11-4 11-7)
Boys U19
Pool B: John Anderson (Joburg Squash) bt Kobus van der Walt (Eden) 3-0 (11-2 11-5 11-2),
Ends
FREE TO USE PICTURE:
Caption:
Seth Flisberg- Western Province’s Seth Flisberg won his first-round match in the Growthpoint South African Junior National Squash Championships in convincing style when he beat Bryce Blomquist of KwaZulu-Natal 11-2 11-6 11-1 in the opening round.
Picture credits: Carl Fourie
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