Opening day of Australian Doubles Open off to flying start

National level squash competition returned to Carrara Squash Centre with the Australian Doubles Open on Saturday (22 January).

It was a day filled with excitement, anticipation and thrilling matches on the Gold Coast that will accumulate on Sunday with several finals. 

Men’s Open top seeds Rhys Dowling and Rex Hedrick eased their way to Sunday's semi-final taking an 11-4 11-2 win in their first victory of the event - the duo had a bye in their opening round match.

Waiting for them in the semi-final will be local Queenslanders Nathan Turnbull and Brad Freeme, who were the surprise packets of the day, beating young guns Jack Hudson and Rohan Toole.

Luke Eyles/Brendan Macdonald and Bradley Hindle/Bryan Lim will feature in the other semi-final.

It was a busy morning for Hedrick, who was also competing in the mixed open with Sarah Cardwell. Two wins took them to the top of their group where they’ll meet fifth seeds Christine Nunn and Jack Hudson to see if they advance to the final.

Speaking after the completion of his matches, 2018 Commonwealth Games representative Hedrick, who arrived on Wednesday to begin training, said it was good to be back playing doubles.

“I think it went to plan. One of the mixed matches, in particular, was pretty close. I thought the other pairing played pretty well but we stuck to our plans and got the results we were after,” he said.

It has also been good seeing familiar faces again.

“I think we've got a pretty good little culture up in Brisbane like we all touch base throughout the year because we don't see each other that often so it has been good to see them again. You see a few people here and there but it's been nice to get the group back together again,” Hedrick said.

Also in the mixed open, Grinham/ Dowling advanced out of their group with Selena Shaikh and Josh Larkin awaiting them in the semi-finals.

In the women’s open, Grinham, who celebrated her 45th birthday today, and Alex Haydon began their Australian Open Doubles campaign undefeated, advancing to the semi-finals. Melissa and Amelia Martin will join them, finishing second in the group after a tight final match (11-9, 7-11. 11-4).

As the end of the day drew to a close, finals spots were still on the line with Christine Nunn/Tamika Hunt and Shaikh/Cardwell coming into the last match of their round-robin level on points. Despite going down in the first 11-8, Shaikh and Cardwell dug in to win the next two including an edge-of-your-seat third set that went down to the wire. It was hard to separate the pairs with the game coming down to four sudden death rallies.

While competition in the Graded events was impacted by Walkouts, they’ll continue their round-robin matches in A Combined while B and C Cominbed has enjoyed a handful of cross over games.

Day 2 of the Australian Doubles Open will get underway from 9am on Sunday.

Full draws and results can be found here

Watch the Australian Doubles Open LIVE on the Cluch website or through their App. Download the app through the App Store or on Google Play to watch all the matches.