LAHAINA, HAWAII, January 30, 2016

The top seeds rolled through their matches  with ease at the $50,000 Sportmaster Tennis Championships of Maui on Friday.

US-American top seed Christina McHale took to the court against no.6 seed Paula Kania (POL). Kania was recently announced to be on the Fed Cup Polish team taking on the USA in Kona next weekend at the Holua Tennis Center on the Big Island. McHale seemed to be satisfied with her level of play.

“The match was closer than the score showed,” started McHale. “I’m just really happy I was able to dictate the points with my forehand and I feel I did that a lot today.”

McHale would win her match over Kania 6-1, 6-2. She will then face heavy-hitter Naomi Broady (GBR) [3] on Saturday in the semi-finals.

Christina McHale (photo: Ryan Trujillo/USTA Hawaii)

On the men’s side, top seed Kyle Edmund (GBR) had what looked like to be an easy win over US-American qualifier Nicholas Meister 6-2, 6-3. Meister, who was a finalist in this tournament last year, struggled with the power and accuracy of Edmund’s shots. Edmund commented on his play in today’s match.

“I was going into the match pretty confident since I played pretty well the last two rounds,” said Edmund. “Meister came through the qualies and two rounds against good players. He likes these conditions and these courts so I knew I had to play well.”

Edmund, who had a highest singles ranking of no.88 in the world is British number three behind Andy Murray and Aljaz Bedene. He also recently represented his country in Great Britain’s Davis Cup Final win over Belgium.

Edmund will now face the winner of James Duckworth and Frances Tiafoe.

“I haven’t played either of them before,” started Edmund. “I’ve practiced with them before, Duckworth a little bit more. Tiafoe is pretty young and young guys are always dangerous to play. Duckworth has won Challenger’s before so you know he knows this level well.”

Duckworth has a total of eight Challenger level tournaments under his belt so far. The question is whether or not he can get past the star American, Frances Tiafoe. Tiafoe and Duckworth are set to play in the night session tonight.

RESULTS – FRIDAY

Men’s
Singles – Quarterfinals

[1] Kyle Edmund (GBR) d [Q] Nicholas Meister (USA) 62 63

[WC] Noah Rubin (USA) d [Q] Ernesto Escobedo (USA) 64 46 62

Di Wu (CHN) d [LL] Alex Bolt (AUS) 57 64 64

Women’s Singles – Quarterfinals

[1] Christina McHale (USA) d [6] Paula Kania (POL) 62 61

[3] Naomi Broady (GBR) d Jacqueline Cako (USA) 36 63 63

[5] Jessica Pegula (USA) d Maria Sanchez (USA) 61 26 64

Raveena Kinglsey (USA) d [2] Samantha Crawford (USA) 63 46 62

ORDER OF PLAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 2016

CENTER start 10:00

ITF – [5] J. Pegula (USA) vs R. Kingsley (USA)

J. Jung (TPE) / D. Novikov (USA) vs [2] A. Bolt (AUS) / F. Moser (GER)

[1] A. Muhammad (USA) / M. Sanchez (USA) or J. Cako (USA) / D. Lao (USA) vs [3] N. Broady (GBR) / P. Kania (POL) or J. Pegula (USA) / T. Townsend (USA)

COURT 5 start 10:00

ATP – [WC] N. Rubin (USA) vs D. Wu (CHN)

ATP – [1] K. Edmund (GBR) vs [3] J. Duckworth (AUS) or F. Tiafoe (USA)

COURT 1 start 10:00

ITF – [1] [WC] C. McHale (USA) vs [3] N. Broady (GBR)