Squash | Robinson wins top clash at Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals

V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, Western Cape: Easterns player Brianna Robinson registered a notable win over Chante Leppan as the intensity moved up a level on the second day of the Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals squash championships in Cape Town on Friday.

Brianna Robinson- Brianna Robinson of Easterns plays a backhand during her 3-2 win over Chante Leppan of Northerns in the women’s U19 section on the second day of the Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals squash championships at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town on Friday.

Plenty of intensity as players chase glory at V&A Waterfront, Cape Town

Playing at Makers Landing at the V&A Waterfront, the country’s top U17 and U19 players are locked in battle in the title chase as the round-robin section format unfolds on Friday and Saturday.

There were several hard-fought matches during the day, giving an indication that the top-seeded players will have to work to achieve the goal of being crowed national champion.

Robinson delivered proof of that in her match in the women’s U19 section against her Northerns opponent, who started the tournament as the second seed.

She took control of the match by taking the first two games, but Leppan showed that nothing could be taken for granted and delivered a supreme effort to level the match by winning the next two games 11-8 and 13-11.

And so, it came down to the fifth game decider, in which Robinson quickly asserted herself to shoot out to a 6-1 lead. It was the sort of deficit which would not be easy to make up between two evenly matched players and although Leppan pulled it back to 10-6, the Easterns player finally sealed the deal on her first match point.

Another blockbuster of a match developed in the girls’ U17 division, where top seed Makayla Naidoo (KwaZulu-Natal) had to fight off a massive challenge from Border’s Kate van Biljon, last year’s Growthpoint U15 champion.

The KZN player led 2-1 before Van Biljon extended the match to a fifth game decider by winning a marathon fourth game 16-14.

It was tight all the way down the final stretch, but Naidoo just managed to do enough to edge home 11-8.

Kate van Biljon of Border in action against Makayla Naidoo of KwaZulu-Natal in the girls’ U17 section on the second day of the Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals squash championships at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town on Friday. Naidoo won a close encounter 3-2.

In another close encounter, women’s U19 top seed Dene van Zyl found herself in a real scrap with Cevana Naidoo (KZN).

The defending Growthpoint U19 champion, Van Zyl looked to be in cruise control at 2-0 up, but Naidoo showed proper grit to take charge of the third, going out to an 8-1 lead.

Although Van Zyl put in a top effort to close the gap, Naidoo held on to win it 11-9 and then followed a tight fourth game which went to the 10-10 tiebreaker, with the top seed regaining control to take it 12-10 and the match 3-1.

In the men’s U19 section, top seed Judah Phillips (Northerns) and No 2 Thomas Boutall (WP) showed they meant business by securing 3-0 wins against tough opponents in Louis le Riche (Boland) and Benji Newman (EP).    

 The pool results were:

Girls U17

Pool A: Makayla Naidoo (KZN) bt Kate van Biljon (Border) 3-2 (9-11 11-5 11-7 14-16 11-8).

Pool B: Hanrie Duits (Eden) bt Amelia Lubbe (Northerns) 3-0 (11-2 11-5 11-6), Vivienne van der Schyff (Free State) bt Tara Neville-Smyly (WP) 3-0 (11-9 11-2 11-9).

Boys U17

Pool A: Christian Swanepoel (Eden) bt Dylan Keswell (WP) 3-1 (11-6 11-5 4-11 11-8).

Pool B: Milan Raffa (Northerns) bt Logan Kidson (Northerns) 3-0 (11-6 11-8 11-8), Luke Goldschmidt (EP) bt Aiden McNeill (KZN) 3-0 (12-10 11-8 11-1).

WomenU19

Pool A: Dene van Zyl (Boland) bt Cevana Naidoo (KZN) 3-1 (11-4 11-5 9-11 12-10), Brianna Robinson (Easterns) bt Chante Leppan (Northerns) 3-2 (11-6 11-6 8-11 11-13 11-6).

Pool B: Marlene van Wyk (Boland) bt Benedette van Tonder (Free State) 3-2 (9-11 11-9 2-11 11-8 11-7), Lucy Malherbe (WP) v Katelyn Walland (EP) 3-1 (11-6 11-8 8-11 11-9).

MenU19

Pool A: Judah Phillips (Northerns) bt Louis le Riche (Boland) 3-0 (11-5 11-5 11-3), Thomas Boutall (WP) bt Benji Newman (EP) 3-0 (11-5 11-7 12-10).

Pool B: Ruvay Ramdhin (KZN) bt Heinu van Jaarsveld (Joburg Squash) 3-0 (11-7 11-6 11-4), Nicholas Basson (WP) bt Anrieg Small (Boland) 3-1 (11-7 8-11 11-7 13-11).

Picture credit: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images)