Canterbury’s top junior squash player, Rod Hayes, yesterday served notice on the top senior players that this year their reputations will be in jeopardy.
The 17-year-old Christchurch player took four sets to dispose of the experienced Viv Hargreaves in the final of the men’s A grade at the Christchurch closed tournament.
The match attracted a large gallery eager to see how Hayes would measure up, especially after his performance at the Easter Summer tournament and a Canterbury representative match in Timaru recently.
Hayes did not disappoint them.
He started slowly in the first game and Hargreaves was up 3-0 before Hayes settled down. Hayes then put pressure on and with Hargreaves making a lot of mistakes in the front of the court went on to win the game 9-4.
The second game took only five minutes. Hayes showed a complete lack of concentration and quickly went down 1-9. In the third game, Hayes took control, keeping Hargreaves back and following up with drop shots, again forcing errors. Hayes won 9-3.
The fourth game was closer but again it was Hargreaves’ mistakes which counted against him rhter than Hayes’ shots. Hargreaves led 7-5 after an intense battle, but Hayes began to get on top and went ahead 8-7 before dropping the serve. Hargreaves held two match points before a reverse boast won the games and match for Hayes 9-4 1-9 9-3 9-7.
In the women’s A final, High School Old Boys’ Ros Stanton scored an overwhelming win against Burnside’s Kathy Graham. Playing good length drives to the back corners, Miss Stanton took the first game 9-6 after trailing for most of the set. The second game was similar with Miss Stanton gradually taking control. Keeping the pressure on by volleying, good length and controlled boasts, Miss Stanton too the serve at 2-3 and piled on seven points to win 9-3.
The third set was tougher for Miss Stanton; Mrs Graham playing a basic length-drop shot game, which seemed to upset the top seed. The serve changed eight times with Mrs Graham leading 5-2. She went to 7-4 before Miss Stanton regained control taking the serve and winning five points to take the final 9-6 9-3 9-7.
