{"id":80600,"date":"2025-08-15T17:02:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=80600"},"modified":"2025-08-15T17:02:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:02:24","slug":"van-niekerk-pulls-off-only-upset-on-day-one-of-junior-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=80600","title":{"rendered":"Van Niekerk pulls off only upset on day one of Junior Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Malherbe
Malherbe van Niekerk<\/span> was the only player to upset the established order on day one of the Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals Squash Championships. Photo: Grant Pitcher\/Gallo Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boland’s Malherbe van Niekerk<\/strong> caused the only upset of the day as the Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals<\/strong> Squash Championships<\/strong> got off to a flying start at the V&A Waterfront, in Cape Town, on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The u17 and u19 age groups are in action on the all-glass court at Makers Landing<\/strong> from Thursday to Saturday, with the Senior Nationals and the u15 division taking place from 28-30 August.<\/span><\/p>\n

Van Niekerk was seeded sixth in the boys’ u17 section and fully deserved his win over third-seed Aiden McNeill<\/strong>, of KwaZulu-Natal, who never gave up trying throughout a tough five games.<\/span><\/p>\n

After splitting the first four games, it all boiled down to the decider, in which Van Niekerk seized the early advantage with some good <\/span>strokeplay<\/span>, which included pulling off a winning boast and a tight drop to set up a 9-6 lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon after that, he moved to match point and killed off the contest with an accurate drive to the back of the court to qualify for the top four.<\/span><\/p>\n

The winners of Thursday’s matches will contest pool A in a round-robin format on Friday and Saturday, while the losers move into pool B.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chant\u00e8
Chant\u00e8 Leppan, the second seed in the u19 girls’ competition, scored a comfortable 3-0 win over Benedette van Tonder. Photo: Grant Pitcher\/Gallo Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was also a good contest in the girls\u2019 u17 section when Border\u2019s Kate van <\/span>Biljon<\/span> found herself in a proper arm wrestle against Vivienne van der <\/span>Schyff,<\/span> of Free State.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fourth-seed Van <\/span>Biljon<\/span> won the first game 11-8 against the fifth seed, but Van der <\/span>Schyff<\/span> got back into the match by taking the second game by a similar margin.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was not much to choose between the two, and they were always within a few points of each other, although Van <\/span>Biljon<\/span> took a significant lead by winning the third game, also 11-8.<\/span><\/p>\n

As they battled for supremacy, the Border player reached her first match point but put a lob out of court to go into a tiebreaker at 10-10.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crucially, another Van der <\/span>Schyff<\/span> error gave Van <\/span>Biljon<\/span> her second match point and this time she made no mistake to wrap up a thrilling contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides those two results, the day was sprinkled with interesting matches as the players fought to qualify for the top four.<\/span><\/p>\n

The top seeds did not always have things their own way, but in the end, they were able to find their rhythm to vindicate their rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, <\/span>Northerns’<\/span> Judah Phillips, the u19 top seed, was pushed all the way by Boland\u2019s <\/span>Anrieg<\/span> Small in the first game before winning it 11-9. He then got into his stride and dropped only six more points.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian Swanepoel, the boys’ u17 number one seed, from Eden, also had to work hard in his first game before subduing Milan Raffa, of <\/span>Northerns,<\/span> 11-9. He established his supremacy by taking the second 11-7 and coasted through the third for the loss of only four points.<\/span><\/p>\n

Qualifying Round Results<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

U17<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Girls:<\/strong> 1-Makayla Naidoo (KZN) <\/span>bt<\/span> 8-Amelia Lubbe (<\/span>Northerns<\/span>) 3-0 (11-3 11-4 11-5), 2-Elzandri <\/span>Janse<\/span> van Rensburg (<\/span>Northerns<\/span>) <\/span>bt<\/span> 7-Hanrie <\/span>Duits<\/span> (Eden) 3-0 (11-7 11-4 11-6), 3-Starla Phillips (<\/span>Northerns<\/span>) <\/span>bt<\/span> 6-Tara Neville-<\/span>Smyly<\/span> (WP) 3-0 (11-2 11-6 11-4, 4-Kate van <\/span>Biljon<\/span> (Border) <\/span>bt<\/span> 5-Vivienne van der <\/span>Schyff<\/span> (Free State) 3-1 (11-8 8-11 11-8 12-10).<\/span><\/p>\n

Boys<\/strong>: 1-Christian Swanepoel (Eden) <\/span>bt<\/span> 8-Milan Raffa (<\/span>Northerns<\/span>) 3-0 (11-9 11-7 11-4), 2-Dean <\/span>Katzin<\/span> (Free State) <\/span>bt<\/span> Logan <\/span>Kidson<\/span> (<\/span>Northerns<\/span>) 3-0 (11-7 11-8 11-7), 6-Malherbe van Niekerk (Boland) <\/span>bt<\/span> 3-Aiden McNeill (KZN) 3-2 (11-5 9-11 11-4 7-11 11-6), 4-Dylan <\/span>Keswell<\/span> (WP) <\/span>bt<\/span> 5-Luke Goldschmidt (EP) 3-0 (11-2 11-5 11-2).<\/span><\/p>\n

U19<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Women:<\/strong> 1-Den\u00e9 Van Zyl <\/span>(Boland) <\/span>bt<\/span> 8-Katelyn <\/span>Walland<\/span> (EP) 3-0 (11-8 11-2 11-4), 2-Chante <\/span>Leppan<\/span> (<\/span>Northerns<\/span>) <\/span>bt<\/span> 7-Benedette van <\/span>Tonder<\/span> (Free State) 3-0 (11-0 11-1 11-4), 3-Brianna Robinson (<\/span>Easterns<\/span>) <\/span>bt<\/span> 6-Marlene van <\/span>Wyk<\/span> (Boland) 3-0 (11-7 11-4 11-1), 4-Cevana Naidoo (KZN) v 5-Lucy Malherbe (WP).<\/span><\/p>\n

Men:<\/strong> 1-Judah Phillips (<\/span>Northerns<\/span>) <\/span>bt<\/span> 8-Anrieg Small (Boland) (11-9 11-1 11-5), 2-Thomas <\/span>Boutall<\/span> (WP) <\/span>bt<\/span> 7-Heinu van Jaarsveld (Joburg Squash) 3-0 (11-3 11-3 11-3), 3-Louis le Riche (Boland) <\/span>bt<\/span> Nicholas <\/span>Basson<\/span> (WP) 3-0 (11-9 11-4 11-6), 4-Benji Newman (EP) <\/span>bt<\/span> 5-Ruvay <\/span>Ramdhin<\/span> (KZN) 3-0 (11-9 11-6 11-5).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boland’s Malherbe van Niekerk caused the only upset of the day as the Growthpoint SA Junior Nationals Squash Championships got off to a flying start at the V&A Waterfront, in Cape Town, on Thursday. The u17 and u19 age groups are in action on the all-glass court at Makers Landing from Thursday to Saturday, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":80601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}