Wanderers Club, Johannesburg
Western Province’s Siyoli Waters, Milnay Louw, Clinton Leeuw and Central Gautenger, Thoboki Mohohlo became the first players to make their way to the semi-finals of the S A National Squash Championships being held at the Wanderers Club, Johannesburg when their respective quarterfinal matches were completed on Wednesday evening.
Louw, ranked 6 in the country, had little difficulty in accounting for Tukkies student, Julie Lee, ranked 12, in straight games. Top seeded Siyoli Waters, presently the country’s number 1 player and ranked 34 in the world, will clash with Louw in Friday’s semi-finals.
Eastern Province’s Elani Landman, a student at the University of Johannesburg, started off in sizzling fashion against Waters racing to a 7-3 lead but Waters gradually got into gear and rattled off 6 consecutive points to lead 9-7 before Landman re-gained the hand-in. Playing clinical squash Waters notched the game at 11-9 and dictated play in the next twp dropping only 8 more points.
The first men’s quarterfinal clash between Mohohlo and Michael Wood of Border saw Mohohlo , the third seed lose the first game 11-13. Playing attacking squash Mohohlo raced to a 5-1 lead in the second before Wood found his length , levelled at 5-all and took a 7-5 lead. Retrieving strongly and going for nicks the Central Gautenger took control and pocketed the game on his first game point 11-8. The second game followed a similar pattern with Mohohlo again winning it 11-8. Racing to a 8-0 lead against a seemingly mesmerized opponent Mohohlo asserted his dominance taking the match 11-5 in the fourth game.
In the semi- final on Friday Mohohlo meets second seeded, Clinton Leeuw. Leeuw, who is presently coaching in Boston, USA, needed 39 minutes to subdue the determined play of JP Brits who chased everything thrown at him by the experienced Leeuw ranked 1 in South Africa at the moment.
The remaining quarterfinals will be played at the Wanderers on Thursday starting at 17h30.
Line-up: Women: Alexandra Fuller (WP) vs Robyn Baptiste(N), Cheyna Tucker (CG) vs Karen Schultz (WP)
Men: Christo Potgieter (SACD) vs Devon Hendricks (CG), Steve Coppinger (KZN) vs Zuko Kubukeli (WP)
S A National Squash Championships
Wanderers Club, Johannesburg
Quarterfinals:
Men : 2- Clinton Leeuw (WP) bt 5/8 –J P Brits (SACD) 11-8 11-3 11-6, ¾- Thoboki Mohohlo (CG) bt 5/8 Michael Wood (Bor) 11-13 11-8 11-8 11-5
Women: 1-Siyoli Waters (WP) bt 5/8 –Elani Landman (EP) 11-9 11-4 11-4, ¾-Milnay Louw (WP) bt 5/8 –Julie Lee (Kzn) 11-6 11-5 11-4
