Wanderers Club, Johannesburg.
Friday was semi-final day of the SA National Squash Event.
The first semi-final match of the evening was between the number 2 seed Milnay Louw and Elani Landman. Landman started well by hitting good lengths and finishing the points well. She played every winner imaginable. To her credit even after being 2-0 Louw came back to scrap the 3rd game 13-11. Landman was rattled by this great recovery and Louw took the 4th relatively easy. The 5th game was closely contested with the game going point for point. Louw took the 1st match ball at 10-9 but Landman held on to then go match ball up at 11-10. Louw hit 2 great lengths to come back and win the game 13-11.
Siyoli Waters the number 1 seed, had to dig deep to come back and win the match 3-2 against Alex Fuller. In the first 2 games Fuller dominated the “T” taking the ball early and placing it to a good length forcing Waters to play loose balls to the front of the court. Fuller took advantage of the loose balls and when she had Waters up against the back wall played good constructive drops. Waters re-focused after the second game and put her head down to come back to level the score at 2-2. She played good solid squash and cut out all errors. The 5th game saw Waters totally focused and she played steady constructive squash forcing Fuller to try to go for winners too early and thereby making mistakes on critical points.
Waters now faces Louw in the finals at 11:45. Waters will be hoping to retain her National title whilst Louw will be aiming for her 1st National title.
In the men’s event Shaun Le Roux was just too solid for Thoboki Mohohlo and took the match 3-0. At no time did Le Roux look like he was under pressure. Le Roux’s pace and length put Mohohlo under extreme pressure and Mohohlo was not able to change the pace of the ball to suit his game.
Natalian, Steve Coppinger’s professionalism and superb athleticism saw him outclass fellow team mate Gary Naidoo. Coppinger thrilled the crowd with outstanding nicks and control of the ball. He showed the crowd why is currently ranked 21 of the world. To his credit Naidoo fought very hard in the 1st game to go down 13-11 but after that it was 1 way traffic to Coppinger. Naidoo had a great performance to get to the semi-final and the hard week surely took its toll on him.
Coppinger looks forward to playing his seventh consecutive final and hopes to take the national title to hold an all-time record of 7.
Men’s semi-finals Results:
S Le Roux (WP) bt T Mohohlo 3-0, 11/8, 11/6, 11/5 (23mins)
S Coppinger (KZN) bt G Naidoo (KZN) 3-0, 13/11, 11/2, 11/4, (29mins)
Ladies Semi Final Results:
M Louw (WP) bt E Landman (Gau) 3-2, 6/11, 7/11, 13/1, 11/3, 13/11 (44mins),
S Waters (WP) bt A Fuller (WP) 3-2, 11/13, 3/11, 11/3, 11/5, 11/3 (46mins)
