Stage set for SA Schools Closed Squash Championships finals on Sunday
After a busy day at St John’s College’s Barrow Squash Centre and at Roedean School, the South African Schools Closed Squash Championships hit the business end of matters on Sunday, with titles in the three age groups on the line.
Boys’ u19 top-seed Luhann Groenewald is into the title decider after another dominating day on the court that brought him 3-0 victories over Joel Fehrsen and Juan-Corné Brand. Only once in those six games did he concede more than five points.
Groenewald won’t be up against second-seeded Judah Phillips in the gold medal match, however. Phillips was ousted by third-seed Devon Osborne in the semi-finals, with Osborne, from Parel Vallei, beating Phillips 11-8, 5-11, 11-8, 11-5.
Earlier in the day, Osborne, once upon a time from St Andrew’s School in Bloemfontein, before he made the move to the Western Cape, beat Josh Smit and Saints’s Semano Mohapi in four.
Meanwhile, Groenewald’s Hoërskool Zwartkop counterpart, Chanté Leppan, secured her place in the final of the girls’ u19 division. It will be a Northerns’ battle for the title, with Leppan facing Midstream College‘s Elzandri Janse van Rensburg for the title in a meeting of the top two seeds.
Both of the u19 finals are scheduled for 11:20.
It will be Joel Rix versus Christian Swanepoel in the boys’ u16 final after Swanepoel ousted top-seed Benji Newman in four games, winning 11-6, 11-9, 5-11 and 11-5.
Rix, the second-seed, very nearly missed out on the title decider, with sixth-seed Joseph Feast dragging him into deep waters. Rix, though, managed to outlast his never-say-die opponent, scraping through 4-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-4 and 14-12.
Feast had earlier dispatched third-seed Thero Motshubi, who was playing on his home courts, in three straight.
The girls’ top seeds in the u16 age group won through, making it a showdown between no.1 Makayla Naidoo, of St John’s DSG and KZN, and no.2 Brianna Robinson, who is home schooled but plays for Easterns.
It’s also one versus two in the boys’ u14 final, with Déwan Borstlap, of Waterkloof, taking on Daniel Tarr, from the traditional powerhouse, Selborne College, for all the marbles.
There is some intrigue involved in the girls’ u14 competition after Lily Strydom, the fourth seed, from The Wykeham College, upset top-seed Rylee Howells, from another Pietermaritzburg school, Epworth, on Saturday.
The points scored during the two-pool format being used in the girls’ u14 age group will determine who advances to the final.
