Squash: Joyce cruises through to Open quarter-finals

LONDON - New Zealander Leilani Joyce marched into the last eight of the British Open squash championships yesterday and is on target for one of the smallest prizes in world sport.

World No 2 Joyce demolished England's former world No 3 Sue Wright 9-6 9-4 9-4 in the second round and will meet another British player, Stephanie Brind, who eliminated New Zealander Shelley Kitchen in the first round, in the quarter-finals at Aberdeen today.

If Joyce wins the Open title she will receive a measly cash prize of sterling 4524 ($14,674) which is sterling 405,000 ($1.3m) less than Lindsay Davenport received for winning the Wimbledon tennis final this year.

Joyce, aged 25, acknowledged that the Open prizemoney - the lowest in years - was peanuts compared with tennis because the sport was unable to attract financial support.

She said: "But you can't compare tennis to squash and money is the last thing on my mind at the moment."

- NZPA