Young guns shine on the first day of Australian National Championships in Darwin

The 2022 Australian National Championships got underway last night at Darwin Squash Centre with a handful of matches in the Men’s Open competition. 

Despite being six seeds lower than his opponent, Gregory Chan advanced to the quarterfinals with a 3-2 (11-5, 11-7, 3-11, 2-11, 11-9) victory over No.5 seed David Turner. 

Chan, who is originally from Western Australia, got out to a big lead after winning games one and two but was more reserved in the following two games after an injury concern popped up.

Turner capitalised on this opportunity to fire back, drawing the match level with a one game decider remaining.

It went blow for blow in the fifth and final game, as both players looked to find the shot that would give them the advantage to close out the match. That fell to Chan at 9-9, as he blasted two points back-to-back. 

The 18-year-old will now face 2021 Australian National Men’s Champion Rex Hedrick on Friday night.

There was another tight match over on Court 4 as Dylan Molinaro, who is competing in his first National Championships at a senior level, made it past no.10 seed Bradley Fullick 3-1 (10-12, 11-4, 12-10, 11-5).

Fullick had a dominant start to the match, pushing out to a 10-0 lead before an error-riddled back end saw Molinaro hit 10 consecutive points. While Fullick was eventually able to close out the first game, Victoria’s Molinaro had a sniff of what he needed to do to get the win as he took the second.

In a reverse of what happened in the first game, this time Molinaro raced out to a 6-1 lead before Fullick fought his way back. Molinaro was able to close out the game and eventually the match.

He has set up a quarterfinal match with no.1 seed and Northern Territorian Joseph White.

Benjamin Ratcliffe will also come up against another local Darwin player in Rhys Dowling after beating Remi Young 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 12-10) on the opening day of competition.

Meanwhile reigning Australian Junior Nationals champion Oscar Curtis defeated Tate Norris 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-2) to advance to the next round where he’ll come up against Nicholas Calvert.

It will be a must-watch quarterfinal as the last time the two came head-to-head, Curtis took the win in a five-set thriller at the 2021 Hilton Open. 

The Australian National Championships will continue this evening (Friday 24 June) with Women’s and Men’s Open matches getting underway from 5:30pm ACST.

Commonwealth Games 2018 gold medallist Donna Lobban will play on home soil for the first time since 2019 when she takes the court against Western Australian Pascale Louka.

Find the full schedule and results here.

Follow the action from the Australian National Championships via Cluch TV. Click here to find the live stream from Court 4