The trio of Leonard Terblanche, Luc Davis and Nicholas Caddle won their opening matches when the Senior National squash competition served off at the spanking new Queen's Park Cricket Club (QPCC) Racket Centre, Queen's Park Oval, Tragarette Road on Wednesday night.
Terblanche registered an 11-5, 11-9, 13-11 win over James Lanser while Davis battled past Drue De Verteuil 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, and Caddle overcame Jonathan Blanc 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7 to book second round spots.
In the Over-40 category, second ranked Peter Pirtheesingh made light work of Varune Mungal, 11-2, 11-3, 11-6 to seal the second semifinal spot behind top seeded Paul De Verteuil who was on a bye.
In the Over-50 competition there were wins for third seeded Richard Hart, Colin Mowser, Brian Phillips, Brent Augustus, to reach the last-eight.
Hart ousted David Lanser 11-7, 11-5, 11-8; Mowser dumped Deepak Dawar 11-3, 11-8, 11-8; Phillips rallied past Stephen Mackay 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6 and Augusts outlasted David Scott 8-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 13-11 in the lone match to go five sets.
The pair of David Merry and Roger Walcott, also reached the last-eight, but without breaking a sweat after scheduled opponents, Glen Ransome and fourth ranked Brian Jackson, both defaulted.
Last night when matches continued, Terblanche faced off with top seeded reigning champion Kale Wilson, second ranked Colin Ramasara came up against Davis in two key matches.
Also on schedule in the men Open were Pirtheesingh against Christian Edghill, Brandon De Montrichard versus Jerry Bell, Caddle came up against Chad Salandy, Julian Chin battled David Stone, and Kobie Khan-Hunte tackled Julian Henry, while Marc Pontifex clashed with Nicholas Shaw for places in the today's quarterfinals.
Also yesterday, in the six player women's Open Draw, Genevieve Shim met Alexandria Yearwood and Faith Gellizeau tackled Marie-Claire Barcant quarterfinal matches.
The winner of the Shim/Yearwood clash will meet top ranked player and defending champion Charlotte Knaggs in one semifinal, and the Gillezeau/Barcant winner will face second seeded Rhea Khan.
Today the men's Open semifinal and Over-50 quarterfinals take place.