KEY POINTS:
Defending men's champions Kirk Pitman and Jason Lochhead survived a scare last night to advance to the quarter-finals of the New Zealand Beach Volleyball Open in Auckland.
After comfortably winning their first game of the day against Mike Peters and Ben O'Dea (Tauranga) 21-15, 21-16, Pitman and Lochhead dropped the first set of their evening game against the sixth seeds for the tournament, Austria's Paul Schroffenegger and Daniel Hupfer, 17-21.
Pitman and Lochhead started to show the form that has taken them to a world ranking of 21, in the second set, easily winning it 21-12. The third and deciding set was close fought with the scores at 9-9, until a couple of dynamic blocks from Pitman helped the Kiwis close out the match 15-10.
In the women's section, top seeds Anna Scarlett and Susan Blundell started their campaign to become the first New Zealand women's team to win the NZ Open well, outclassing the Great Britain pairing of Rachel Turner and Helen Brown 21-11, 21-12.
Most of the games of day one went according to seedings, although the sixth seeds, the Brazilian woman's team of Nina Zgoda and Fernanda Costa found their best form of the tour, beating the fourth seeds, Debbie Hill (Dunedin) and Melissa Ruru (Rotorua) 21-12, 21-18.
Zgoda and Costa thrived in the calm conditions of the ASB Tennis Centre, and emerge as strong contenders in the women's section.
Pool play continues today from 8.30am, with he quarter-finals scheduled to start from 1pm. The semifinals start at 10am tomorrow with the women's final at 2pm, and the men's final at 3pm.
