The cream rises to the top with Indoor seeds
Tweed Heads proved to be a happy hunting ground at the opening day of the Australian Indoor Championships. Tweed Heads was a happy hunting ground for the top seeds on the opening day of the $30,000 Australian Indoor Championships.
The top two seeds of both the men’s and women’s disciplines escaped the carnage of the first round of the knockout competition, which saw the fields whittled down from 32 to just 14.
Reigning champions Jeremy Henry and Carla Krizanic headlined the proceedings, with both prevailing in two rubbers to move within three wins of hoisting the coveted trophy aloft for consecutive years.
Krizanic didn’t have it all her way though, dodging a bullet on the tie-break after dropping the first set in her second game against Lauretta Marchese, 7-8, 8-7, 3-2, late tonight.
Recent Australian Open singles winners Aron Sherriff and Natasha Scott also kept their chances of winning the illustrious double – the national Indoor and Outdoor singles titles – alive in the same year, however were only presented with the opportunity to secure one win.
The first day of the time-honoured event, now in its 29th year, saw six sessions of the opening round staged from 8.00am to 8.00pm, in addition to four individual matches of the second round.
Joining Henry and Krizanic on two victories was Western Australia’s Clive Adams and 19 year-old Australian Jackaroo Dawn Hayman, with the quartet now set to square off from 12.00pm in the quarter-finals.
Some tantalising second round encounters have also been booked for day two of the event, with none more mouth-watering than the blockbuster match-up scheduled for 10.00am between the home crowd favourite Kristy Thatcher, from Tweed Heads, and the undisputed queen of the Australian Indoor Championships, six-time champion Karen Murphy.
Also featuring heavily on spectator’s must-see list are the Noronha twins from Merrylands taking on Australia’s world champion teammates, with Natalie set to face Tasmania’s only world title-winner Rebecca Van Asch from 8.00am, while Samantha lines up against Van Asch’s 2012 gold medal winning teammate Kelsey Cottrell at 10.00am.
The second round and quarter-finals will be played at the Australian Indoor Championships tomorrow, with both women’s semi-finals scheduled for Wednesday, while the men’s semis will be split over Wednesday and Thursday, which will also feature the ultimate deciders.
Click here to view the full men’s results from the 2016 Australian Indoor Championships.
Click here to see the full women’s results from the event at Tweed Heads.
