Some of the world's best squash players converged on Tauranga today, with Ngāti Porou player Joelle King front and centre for two weeks of action on the court in the Trustpower Arena.
In day one of three of the Carrus Nations Cup, No.5 world seed King will face off against Australia’s Jessica Turnbull while fellow teammate world No.2 Paul Coll takes on Rex Hendrick from 6pm tonight.
Teams of two represent the nations involved in the Carrus Nations Cup, played in singles action in a best-of-seven games scoring format.
The action already started today at 1pm today, with Canada beating Scotland in two games, while England also beat New Zealand B in their two matches.
New Zealand is the only nation out of England, USA, Scotland, Canada, Australia and Europe to have two teams, split by NZ A and NZ B. Representing the wildcard team of NZ B is Kaitlyn Watts and Lwamba Chileshe.
If that’s not enough squash for viewers, the NZ Open starts next Tuesday, November 8 through to November 12 in the same arena. It’s the first time in 30 years since the last NZ Men’s Open tournament and 13 years since the Women’s championship.
The open has players from 20 nations around the world participating, such as Qatar, Argentina, Hong Kong, Egypt and Hungary, all competing for a US$150,000 prize.
Both King and the current Commonwealth Games men’s singles and mixed gold medallist Coll have bye games in the first round, playing their first matches in round two next Wednesday.
