Kiwi squash pro Paul Coll has started his New Zealand Open title defence with a dominant 3-0 victory over Japan's Ryunosuke Tsukue at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch.
World No.4 was in top form as he took on Tsukue in front of a loud home crowd which included 50 friends and family who travelled from the West Coast to support him.
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Coll showed great variety in his shot selection, taking his opportunities at the front as he shut down the attacking flair of Tsukue.
After winning the first game 11-3, Coll made Tsukue cover plenty of the court in the second, lifting the ball well into the back corners and seizing any opportunity to hit a winner.
Coll’s patience and tactics saw him take the third game 11-6 for a comfortable 3-0 win in 25 minutes 11-3, 11-6, 11-6.
“I’m very happy with my first performance. It was an amazing intro that I got from the crowd, so I was just out there trying to enjoy it. I played my shots and felt pretty relaxed and I’m very happy with how that went,” he said afterwards.
Coll will take on France’s Sébastien Bonmalais in his quarter-final at 6pm tomorrow.
Earlier in the day 18-year-old local Wellington wildcard Oliver Dunbar’s dream run ended at the hands of third seed Eain Yow Ng of Malaysia.
Dunbar had earlier upset Rui Soares in the tournament, a player 200 places above him in teh rankings.
The crowd dared to dream as Dunbar took the opening point today after a testing first rally. Dunbar matched Ng well during the opening spell and earned a narrow 4-3 lead before the Malaysian opened up the court, putting some brutal rallies into the teen’s legs as the No.3 seed scored eight points in a row to take game one.
Ng picked up where he left off in game two and three, with the Malaysian No.1 pulling away to wrap up the win.