Rotorua's Amanda Landers-Murphy pipped at the post by Joelle King at New Zealand Squash Championships

 

 Rotorua's Amanda Landers-Murphy (right-centre) finished second to her Commonwealth games doubles partner Joelle King (left-centre) at the New Zealand Squash Championships. Photo / Getty Images

Rotorua's Amanda Landers-Murphy has gone up against her Commonwealth Games doubles partner Joelle King at a major tournament for the second time in a month.

King and Landers-Murphy were seeded first and second respectively at the New Zealand Squash Championships and duly met in the final at Henderson Squash Club on Sunday.

Just as she did at the British Open in May, King showed why she is ranked fourth in the world, winning the final 11-8, 12-10, 11-6.

The first game started quietly with the scores locked at 2-all before King reeled off five points in a row to go ahead 7-2 and then win the game 11-8. The second game had King ahead 7-5, but Landers-Murphy fought back to win four points in a row and race ahead 9-7 and then have a game point at 10-8. However, it was King who gained the momentum again to take the game 12-10.

In the final game, King was able to stay ahead throughout and complete the match with an 11-6 victory.

It was a fascinating battle between two women who know each other's games inside out and Landers-Murphy took plenty of positives from her performance.

"It was good to make it to the final, that was the minimum I wanted going there, so it was obviously good to do that. I felt I had a really good game against Joelle, so it was a good weekend.

"She was definitely the stronger player, but for me I was quite happy to see some of the stuff I've been working on overseas start to come into game. I guess I was looking for the improvements in my game and that's why I felt it was a good game.

"I always know playing Joelle is going to be a tough match-up. It's a bit of catch-22 because it's great to be able to play someone of that calibre, but I've also never beaten her before," Landers-Murphy said.

She had a tough road to the final, taking 38 minutes to defeat third-seed Emma Millar, of Hamilton, 11-6, 11-8 12-14 11-9. Emma is the older sister of Zac Millar, Landers-Murphy's mixed doubles partner on the Gold Coast.

"I didn't feel I played my best throughout the tournament, the final was definitely my best squash. Having said that, some of the players I came up against played well, so I was happy to get through those games. I thought Emma played really, really well - full credit to her, she went out there and she went for it, she hit some great shots," she said.

Landers-Murphy is now looking forward to spending some time in Rotorua and diving into a "proper off-season block of training".

In the men's final at the New Zealand Squash Championships, top seed Paul Coll, of Canterbury, won his fourth consecutive title, beating his Gold Coast teammate Evan Williams, of Wellington, 11-5, 11-3, 11-2 in the final.