Coll, Craig looking to fly local flag
Canterbury’s leading squash players Paul Coll and Megan Craig will be seeking to feature prominently in their home professional squash tournaments at Burnside starting later this week.
Coll’s world ranking has reached No59 and he is ranked No5 for the PSA men’s event starting on Thursday which has prizemoney of $10,000. The women’s pool is $5000.
The event is part of a three match series being staged in New Zealand, the first in Palmerston North last weekend and the third at Invercargill next weekend.
Coll was the beaten semifinalist in the Manawatu tournament but not before taking the eventual men’s winner Malaysia’s Nafiizwan Adnan to five sets in a semi-final. England’s Declan James was the other finalist after he eliminted New Zealand’s Campbell Grayson.
Megan Craig is ranked No2 at the Christchurch event and she was also a semi-finalist at Palmerston North before bowing to eventual winner Joey Chan.
Like Adnan, Chan is not coming to Christchurch for the tournament with the leading women’s seed Siyoli Waters from South Africa, the world No32. She has won 10 WSA titles and is South Africa’s No1.
The top two men’s seeds are Germany’s Raphael Kandra, a nine-time PSA title winner, followed by Australian Rex Hedrick who has won eight titles.
Leading local junior Ruby Turnbull has been pitted against Waters in the main draw while wild card entry Chris van der Salm from Christchurch strikes Hedrick first up.
The tournament begins on Tuesday night with qualifying round and continues into Wednesday. The finals are being held on Sunday afternoon.
Players from Korea, Germany, Jamaica, Taipei, India, England, Canada, South Africa, USA and Australia are taking part.