Great Scots claim double at NZ Classic
It was double delight for Scotland on finals day at the New Zealand International Classic PSA in Palmerston North yesterday.
Unseeded Lucy Aitken started the day with a win over Kiwi seventh-seed Emma Millar in the women’s final 3-1 (11-5, 4-11, 11-9, 11-3).
Third-seeded Greg Lobban followed suit beating fourth seeded Indian Mahesh Mangaonkar 3-0 (11-8, 15-13, 11-6).
The win continued an impressive return from injury for Lobban.
The 24-year-old was playing just his third tournament back since a hamstring injury saw him sidelined for six months.
It has been hard to fault his form since his return. He was the runner-up in the Tring Open in England before winning the Stortford Classic, also in England.
But he did not have it all his own way against Mangaonkar.
The duo battled out a number of long rallies early in the match.
Lobban said that was part of his strategy heading into the match.
‘‘The first half of each game was really tough, he had fresh legs. I could tell at the end of each game I was getting into his legs a bit and making the rallies longer and tougher,’’ he said.
‘‘Part of the gameplan was to get him tired. I knew physically I had the edge over him a little bit. It was also the game plan to get him to that stage and I was hoping mentally he would give me a few errors.’’
As the match wore on, Mangaonkar became increasingly frustrated and his head appeared to drop in the third set allowing Lobban to pull away for the win.
Lobban did not drop a set in the tournament.
He beat Malaysia’s Valentino Bong in round one, sixth-seeded Kiwi Evan Williams in the quarters finals and second-seeded Englishman Angus Gillams in the semifinal.
Aitken beat Malaysia’s Nazihah Hanis in round one 3-0, before knocking out Kiwi number one seed Amanda Landers-murphy in the quarter finals 3-2.
She beat fourth-seeded Malaysian Andrea Lee 3-2 in the semifinal.
Both Lobban and Aitken will play two further tournaments on the PSA schedule in New Zealand before heading home.
They play in the Southern Open in Invercargill next week, before tackling the Squash XL Open in Auckland the week after.