By DAVE WORSLEY
The quarter-finals today will signal the start of the business end of the New Zealand Residential tennis championships - but one prominent name will not be in the field.
James Greenhalgh is the only seeded player missing from the last eight. The fourth seed dropped the first set in a tiebreak against GD Jones, and then withdrew with a stomach muscle strain.
That should take nothing away from Jones's play as Greenhalgh admitted his younger opponent has plenty of potential for better things in the future.
Jones will now play Simon Rea, last year's 18s champion, who has been on a scholarship in the United States and was forced into three sets to beat Adam Thompson in his third- round match.
The other significant match of the day featured the elder of the Thompson brothers, Mark, the fifth seed who took 2 1/2 hours to beat Nick Lane 6-4, 7-5, and now faces Alistair Hunt.
Second seed Robbie Cheyne beat Andrew Turner and will meet Nick Turner for a place in the semis on the slow courts.
In the women's draw there will be some tough matches. Pavlina Nola faces 16-year-old Tanja Markovic, who was runner-up in the national 18s singles final this week.
Auckland champion Ilke Gers is up against sixth seed Rachel Dive.
The bottom half of the draw will see second seed Shelley Stephens meeting former Federation Cup team-mate, Rewa Hudson, and Leanne Baker clashing with fifth seed Tracey O'Connor.
Tennis: Greenhalgh out with stomach muscle strain
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