Paul Coll has opened his New Zealand Open title defence with a dominant 3-0 victory over Japanese No.1 Ryunosuke Tsukue at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch.
The World No.4 was in top form as he took on Tsukue in front of a loud home crowd which included 50 friends and family who travelled from the West Coast to support him. Coll showed great variety in his shot selection, taking his opportunities at the front as he shut down the attacking flair of Tsukue.
After winning the first game 11-3, Coll made Tsukue cover plenty of the court in the second, lifting the ball well into the back corners and seizing any opportunity to hit a winner.
Coll’s patience and tactics saw him take the third game 11-6 for a comfortable 3-0 win.
“I’m very happy with my first performance. It was an amazing intro that I got from the crowd, so I was just out there trying to enjoy it. I played my shots and felt pretty relaxed and I’m very happy with how that went,” he said afterwards.
“It’s been so good playing in Christchurch. I’ve been here for a few days now and this is where I grew up, playing all my squash. It does really feel like home to me, which is a pretty cool feeling. I never, ever thought I’d have a New Zealand Open in Christchurch and I’m so stoked for the people of Canterbury, they’ve had a big 10 years, so to be able to pull this off is really special.”
Coll will take on France’s Sébastien Bonmalais in his quarter-final at 6pm tomorrow.
Result: [1] Paul Coll (NZL) bt Ryunosuke Tsukue (JPN) 3-0: 11-3, 11-6, 11-6 (25m)
Earlier in the day 18-year-old local Wellington wildcard Oliver Dunbar’s dream run ended at the hands of No.3 seed Eain Yow Ng of Malaysia.
Dunbar tore up the script at the Isaac Theatre Royal on day one with a win over Rui Soares, ranked more than 200 places above him.
The crowd dared to dream as Dunbar took the opening point today after a testing first rally. Dunbar matched Ng well during the opening spell and earned a narrow 4-3 lead before the Malaysian opened up the court, putting some brutal rallies into the teen’s legs as the No.3 seed scored eight points in a row to take game one.
Ng picked up where he left off in game two and three, with the Malaysian No.1 pulling away to wrap up the win.
Tomorrow (Friday March 7th) will see the quarterfinals contested, with semi-finals Saturday, and finals Sunday. Full results are available here.
The New Zealand Squash Open is being contested from March 4th to 9th in Christchurch’s iconic Isaac Theatre Royal, where a glass court has been installed on stage.
The Lucino Vanities Men’s Open field is headlined by World No. 4 Coll, and features five of the world’s top 20. Defending Champion Coll is joined by World No.5 Mazen Hesham and runner up from the previous NZ Open, Marwan Elshorbagy.
The Barfoot & Thompson Women’s Open draw boasts 9 of the world’s top 20 athletes. The overall draw features 24 men and 24 women from 17 nations and six continents making it a truly global event.
Tickets for the 2025 Bridleways Estate NZ Festival of Squash are on sale with more information available at www.festivalofsquash.co.nz
The draw and results are available here with all glass court matches to be broadcast on Sky TV.
Keep up to date with all the tournament’s developments on the tournament website, or follow World Squash on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
(Words supplied)
