Meakins among top seeds to advance

All four top seeds, including 13-time national women’s champion Karen Meakins, won in straight sets to reach the semi-finals when the 40th annual National Squash Championships continued at the Barbados Squash Club, Marine Gardens, on Tuesday night.
Meakins defeated Muffin Stollmeyer 11-1, 11-2, 11-4 to set up a showdown with the promising Nadia McCarthy, who logged a hard-fought win over  national under-15 champion, Amanda Haywood 11-5, 11-9, 15-13.
The other semi-final will be between the No.2 seed, Gylla Mackenzie, the reigning Barbados and Caribbean Under-17 champion, and Alex Jordan.
MacKenzie defeated the experienced Cilla Seale 11-2, 11-0, 11-1, while Jordan won comfortably 11-2, 11-2, 11-9 over Clair Husbands.
In the men’s preliminary draw, seven out of eight matches were won by teenagers or players in their early 20s. National junior team members Stewart St John, Brandon Straker and Shemane Griffith all prevailed with easy 3-0 victories over Cliff Nolan, Dean Straker and Julian Welch, respectively.
Brandon’s older brother, Copeland Straker, was too strong for Andrew Nunes, Ryan Foster also overcame Sylvester Nurse 3-0, while Zaki Williams defeated Deepu Panjwani, all in straight games.
In a nail-biting, entertaining affair, Caribbean under-13 and current national under-13 and under-15 champion, Khamal Cumberbatch, won on tiebreak 9-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7, 18-16 over the experienced former hockey national representative, Peter Harris.
Rounding out the eight players was the evergreen Leon Truss, who beat another junior national representative, Rithew Saywack, in four close games 13-15, 11-7, 11-2, 12-10. (EZS/PR)