Winning start for Kiwi squash team at world doubles championships

The New Zealand squash team made a good start at the 2017 World Doubles Squash Championships in Manchester with five wins out of their six matches in pool play.

Rotorua's Amanda Landers-Murphy featured in three victories at the World Squash Federation event on Tuesday (Wednesday NZ Time).

The 26-year-old won two women's doubles with Joelle King, although one of them went three sets and she also combined with Zac Mllar to win a mixed contest easily.

The tough match for Landers-Murphy and King was against the eighth seeded Canadians, Samantha Cornett and Nikki Todd and lasted 37 minutes before the top seeded Kiwis won 5-11 11-5 11-9.

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"It's great to get off to a good start and start the first day strong. We had a bit of a challenging one [against Canada]," Landers-Murphy said.

 "We lost the first game and coach Glen Wilson talked to us and we had to change a few things up and fight back really so it was good we were able to do that."

On day two Landers-Murphy will play just one match where she will team with Millar again as they take on the sixth seeds from India.

New Zealand are one of the favourite nations having won two gold medals and a bronze last year.

Kiwi number one Paul Coll and Campbell Grayson started their 2017 campaign by winning in straight games over the Scottish pair Douglas Kempsell and Kevin Moran 11-9 11-6, although it took 44 minutes to complete the victory.

Evan Williams and Lance Beddoes won their match against a South African team but fell to the second seeds from Australia, Ryan Cuskelly and Cameron Pilley in straight games.

Williams and Beddoes play their third pool game on day two against the seventh seeds from Wales.

Tournament top seeds Coll and King play their first two matches on day two while Coll and Grayson as fourth seeds could have a tough match against English fifth seeds Declan James and James Willstrop.

The fifth world doubles championships, featuring men's, women's and mixed events is contested by a record 50 pairings from Australia, Canada, Colombia, England, India, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, South Africa and Wales and runs from August 1- 5.

The world championships help decide the seedings towards next year's Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

AT A GLANCE

Day one results from the ISF World Squash Doubles tournament in Manchester

Men's Doubles Pool B

[2] Ryan Cuskelly/Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt [10] Evan Williams/Lance Beddoes (NZL) 11-7 11-10.

Williams/Beddoes (NZL) bt [13/16] Christo Potgieter/Jean-Pierre Brits (RSA) 11-10 11-6.Men's Doubles Pool D

[4] Paul Coll /Campbell Grayson (NZL) bt [12] Douglas Kempsell/Kevin Moran (SCO) 11-9 11-6.

Mixed Doubles Pool C

[11] Amanda Landers-Murphy/Zac Millar (NZL) bt [13/16] Catalina Pelaez/Andrés Herrera (COL) 11-3 11-5.

[1] Joelle King/Amanda Landers-Murphy (NZL) bt [9] Natalie Grinham/Milou van der Heijden (NED) 11-5 11-4.

King/Amanda Landers-Murphy (NZL) bt [8] Samantha Cornett/Nikki Todd (CAN)  5-11, 11-5, 11-9.