Top Seed Wins As Commonwealth Games Player Clash In Auckland Final
Monday 5 March 2018, 2:48PM
By dave worsley
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A battle of the top seeds and a disrupted final saw two new names take away the trophies at the Auckland Squash Open at the Remuera Rackets Club on Sunday evening.
The men’s final featured top seed Evan Williams (Wellington) taking on his New Zealand Commonwealth Games teammate Zac Millar (Waikato). Williams made Millar work hard early in each game with some punishing rallies, forcing Millar to try and hit winners as the games wore on.
Both players hit quality winners and put on some entertaining squash, with Williams ultimately too strong on the day taking the title out in three games 11-8, 11-6, 11-6
The women’s final pitted top seed Kaitlyn Watts (Palmerston North) against fourth seed Jo Shanks (Bay of Plenty).
Shanks was out to avenge her loss to Watts, the countries’ top junior player in last year’s Senior Nationals, and both players were made to work hard in the first three games.
However, the athletic Watts succumbed to a hamstring injury early in the fourth game lunging for a ball in the back corner and unfortunately was forced to retire, handing Shanks her first Auckland Open title with an eventual scoreline of 9-11, 11-7, 7-11, 2-1 retired.
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