Sam and Ben O’Dea are looking to put on a show against fellow kiwis Tom Hartles and Tom Heijs in Sunday’s first semi final at Mount Maunganui main beach. With two NZ men’s teams going head to head, one is guaranteed to make the men’s final at 2pm on Sunday.
- Beach Pro Tour Futures schedule | Beach Pro Tour Futures seeds
- Fans can tune in all matches streaming live on YouTube from 9am Sunday
The women’s semi finals are an all-New Zealand and Canada affair, with Beach Ferns Shaunna Polley and Alice Zeimann playing eighth seeded Canadians Shanice Marcelle and Lea Monkhouse in their semi final at 11am Sunday, following an assured win against French team Manon Rebuffel and Mélody Benhamou 21-13 and 21-19.
Olivia MacDonald and Julia Tilley will play fourth seeds Darby Dunn and Olivia Grace Furlan after beating fellow kiwis Rosa Vesty and Kiana Stevenson 21-18 and 21-7 in their quarter final.
In a mixed day for the NZ men, Hartles and Heijs upset the Japanese pair of Kai Kurokawa and Kosuke Fukushima, seeded five spots above the North Shore team, 21-16 and 23-21 to secure their spot in the semi finals.
The O’Dea brothers await, who beat the strong Australian team of James Takken and Solomon Bushby 25-27, 21-19 and 15-10 in a hard fought three setter.
"Going into the third set of the quarterfinal, I think we were both a little bit tired," said Ben O'Dea.
"But that was kind of expected, because obviously we haven't trained as much as what we have in previous years, it's always a bit of a battle for us. It becomes a real mental battle once you become tired, but we were sitting down and just said 'Hey, we got fifteen more points here.'"
"Something we haven't done so well over the last three weekends is bouncing back in those third sets, so we just gave it everything, you can be tired later on, because it's only one game today."
"We knew we had experience over them too, when you're a younger team and these like slightly bigger tournaments, the occasion can get to you a little bit - Sam and I've been in these situations a lot, so we kind of knew that as long as we keep the pressure on, that they might fade a little bit."
“We just went out to play hard, I think if we're having fun, we're playing good. The first tournament we played a couple of weekends ago, we had a lot of fun and I don't know what it was but I think maybe it was a little bit too much expectation after winning a few in a row there, and we stopped having fun.”
“The plan for tomorrow? This is the semi final of a World Tour tournament, we've kind of been here before, it's on our home beach and family is watching, so it's a really good opportunity for us to have some fun and put on a little bit of a show,” said Ben O’Dea.
Unfortunately for the Mount fans, Brad Fuller and Alani Nicklin dipped out to second seeded Chinese duo Likejiang Ha and Jiaxin Wu 21-18 and 21-18, while locals Jack McManaway and Tom Reid lost to American pair David McKienzie and Benjamin Vaught, who they’ve battled all summer on the 2023 G.J. Gardner Homes NZ Beach Tour presented by Tip Top, 21-15 and 21-19.
Beach Pro Tour Futures Mount Maunganui 2023
Finals day
All court one, Mount Maunganui main beach | 19 March 2023
- Men’s semi finals: 9am and 10am
- Women’s semi finals: 11am and 12pm
- Men’s third place match: 1pm
- Men’s final: 2pm
- Women’s third place match: 3pm
- Women’s final: 4pm
