2016 North Island Individual Championships

Dates:15th to 17th July 2016

Day 3 Graded Events Summary

The men's B Grade event had an interesting semi-final match-up, where Heath Murdoch excelled in beating Jae Lee 3-1 and Alfred de la Pena beat Depak Patel 3-0. Alfred struggled to win the first two sets of the final 11-9, but completed his victory over Heath 11-4 in the third.

In the women's event Jessica Macaskill held off the challenge of local girl Menaka Samarasinghe to take the singles.

In the D Grade event there was a local derby in the quarter-final between Finn Holden and Jordan Mills, with the latter winning in 5. In the semi-finals Martin Young had a battle royal with Allen Blackburn, winning the fourth set 13-11 after losing the third 15-17. Young found it less demanding in beating Manawatu's Conor Wadsworth in the final.

The C Grade women’s event on Saturday was won by Manawatu junior Abbey Webb, from Abbey Daisley.

In the men's event, Wellingtonian Scott Higham finished top in his pool, then beat Jordan Mills in a tight 5 set quarter-final before falling to Yau Yang Low from Waikato. In the other semi-final the extremely busy Alex Mei defeated top seeded Andrew Palmer from Waitemata. Mei then had enough energy left to defeat Yau in a tough five set final.

Day 2 Open and Age Grade Summary

The men’s open event was affected by the late withdrawals of Ryan Zhu and Roger Wang from one group and Allen Zhao and Charley Talumepa from another, allowing the Wellington pairing of Sean Hanson and Frank Fu to qualify for the main draw. There were a few upsets in the other pools. Kelsey Amor pipped Dean Shu 11-9 in the fifth set. Alfred de la Pena beat Jonjon Zhao in straight sets after earlier taking Phillip Xiao to 11-9 in the final set.

The first round of knockout matches provided a great spectacle to onlookers. Firstly Victo Pollett pushed the chopper Yuhan Gao before succumbing. Then Alfred de la Pena recovered from 0-3 to 3 sets all against Victor Ma, before Victor prevailed in the seventh. Sean Hanson came back from 0-3 against Kevin Lin also, with Kevin ultimately prevailing 11-9 in the seventh set. Then Victor Ma upset second seed Yi-sien Lin 4-1 in the quarter-finals, while Matthew Ball beat Dean Shu by the same margin in the lower half of the draw. In the upper half Phillip Xiao and Yuhan Gao progressed in straight sets against Kevin Lin and Kelsey Amor respectively.

The semis saw Phillip and Victor impressively accounting for Gao and third seed Matt Ball respectively. In the final Phillip Xiao was too strong, winning in straight sets.

In the women’s open event Zhiying Cheng caused an upset by beating Armindeep Singh in pool play. Auckland's Lucy Lu then proved too strong for Zhiying in their semi-final. On the other side of the draw North Shore chopper Man Wang impressively beat Ruofei Rao 4-1. She then went on to beat Lu 4-2 in the final.

The women’s doubles was won by Sarah Sandley from Auckland and Man Wang from North Shore, the top seeds, defeating the youthful combination of Nai Xin Jiang and Zhiying Cheng in the final.

The under 15 boys singles was notable for the fact that all 8 seeds progressed in the expected order into the knockout phase. In the quarters the top seeded quartet of Jonjon Zhao, Jason Sivilay, Alex Mei and Xavier Lea all progressed, with Jonjon quickly bounding to the final. Alas for Alex he was kept on the table in various events, leaving him somewhat drained for the final. He could feel happy that he got his money worth after missing the previous day due to a flight cancellation. The boys doubles was won in 4 sets by Alex Mei and Jason Sivilay, from Xavier Lea and Liam Buckrell.

The under 15 girls singles was won by Sophie Low, who beat Abbey Webb in the final after a tight semi-final win over Emily Jin.

The girls under 21 singles was keenly fought, with Lucy Lu beating Hui Ling Vong in an epic 5 setter to clinch the victory.

In the boys under 21 singles there were many spirited matches and a few upsets. But one player shone throughout. Dean Shu dropped only one set in defeating Jae Lee, Sean Hanson, Kelsey Amor (quarter), Jonjon Zhao (semi) and Alfred de la Pena (final). De la Pena had a huge battle in his semi-final with Victor Pollett, before prevailing 3-2, after the latter had impressively beaten Kevin Lin. Both De la Pena and Zhao defeated Victor Ma, and Zhao had a 5 set victory over Pollett.

The fields for some of the veterans events on Saturday morning were rather small, meaning that a lot of events were completed promptly, with several multiple winners.

Manawatu’s Jim Jarmin and Gladys Halford beat evergreens Chip Eade and Val Scarr in the over 70 mixed doubles. Gladys also took out the over 65 women’s singles, with Sue Shirriffs second. Chip was triumphant in the over 70 mens singles, with Jim runner-up.

In the mens 65s singles Bryan McConnochie earned gold with a tough 3-2 victory over Dave Scott. Chip Eade and Jim Jarmin triumphed in the mens doubles, and Dave Scott and Val Scarr in the mixed.

The over 50 mens event was a round robin where Lindsay Ward prevailed, ahead of Ian Talbot. They paired up to win the doubles.

The home pairing of Tim Seaholme and Mike Tate-Davis took out the over 30 mens doubles from Wellington’s Heath Murdoch and Stephen Hirst. Tim played Ben Collins from Wellington in the mens singles final, with Ben prevailing 3-1. Heath Murdoch and Depak Patel were the losing semi-finalists.

The over 40's event was played on Sunday with Heath Murdoch continuing his strong form, beating Depak Patel in the final after they had beaten Paul Whitehead and Charley Talumepa respectively in the semis.

Day 1 Summary: Friday

Upsets to the flight schedule set the scene for upsets on the table on the first day of the North Island Champs. Cancellation of a morning flight from Auckland meant there were a few late arrivals and some withdrawals from the Under 18 boys draw.

One of the late arrivals, Victor Ma was beaten by a resolute Kevin Lin in 5 sets in their quarter-final. Ma spent much of the game playing back from the table, but had a lot of success with bullet-like counter-hits from mid-range. However, the consistent attacking play of Lin brought him home in the fifth set. In the remaining quarter-finals Dean Shu, Alfred de la Pena and Jonjon Zhao all triumphed in straight sets, over Sean Hanson, Xavier Lea and Dan Heaphy respectively.

Match of the day was between Waitemata’s Alfred de la Pena and Dean Shu in their semi-final. Dean, who arrived the day before for extra practice, started well. But, Alfred began to get the edge in numerous long forehand to forehand rallies and took the match in 4 sets. On the other side of the draw Jonjon Zhao defeated Kevin Lin, showing greater consistency. In the final a buoyant and confident De la Pena showed greater composure than Zhao and took it in 5 sets.

After the withdrawal of Roger Wang, Victor Ma partnered Xavier Lea in the under 18 doubles. They scraped into the final against De la Pena and Lin, with the latter winning the final in 4 close sets.

The girls under 18 singles was won by Lucy (Guiting) Lu from Auckland, beating Ruofei Rao in straight sets in the final, after seeing off the challenge of Hui Ling Vong and Nai Xin Jiang respectively. The finalists combined to win the doubles from Nai Xin and Zhiying Cheng.

In the under 13’s the Canterbury pair of Lydia Mercer-Beumelburg and Natasha Senior dominated the girls events, taking the doubles from the Waikato pair of Minette Whitehead and Emily Jin. Senior won the singles final against her partner in straight sets.

Finn Holden combined with newcomer, Daniel Otthenof from North Shore to take out the under 13 boys doubles from the Manawatu pairing of Kaushal Patel and Thomas Sun. Sun and Holden came through to the boys singles final, the last match of the day, with Holden defeating Max Henderson in a five set semi-final. Both boys showed a lot of patience in long rallies, with Holden attacking and Sun lobbing back repeatedly. The Manawatu boy triumphed in straight sets, showing great consistency.

Russell Winkley and Sue Shirriffs took out the over 60’s mixed from Keith Spooner and Val Scarr. Bryan McConnochie beat Winkley in the men’s over 60 final in a tight 5-setter. Winkley, the sole Hawkes Bay player, took out the men’s final with Dave Scott from Taumarunui.

Preview

The entry numbers for this year's event are much higher than for last year, with 111 entered. Players have come from as far as Northland, Otago and Southland. All but 2 North Island Associations are represented, and 3 from South Island are attending.

Central Region Training Camp: Thursday

There were 18 boys and 4 girls amongst the 22 participants along, with 3 coaches, Hayden Tapp and Richard Lee from Wellington and Matthew Ball from Manawatu.

The Wellington players were Sean Hanson, Frank Fu, Liam Buckrell, Hui Ling Vong and Abby Wilson. From Manawatu were Jae Lee, Jack Webb, Thomas Sun, William Hunter, Kaushal Patel, Dan Heaphy, Abbey Webb, Faith Molina, Changhee Cho, Callum McKinnon, Akshay Aneesh, Angus and Rian Lyver, Jin Shim, Alex Hall and Mike Sung. Xavier Lea from Bay of Plenty completed the lineup after the late withdrawal of Hawkes Bay players.