Jaymie Haycocks and Dylan Cunningham are in the Kiva Open final

Reuben Phillips and Jaymie Haycocks.

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The players buying time for a brief rest.

The match ended with a handshake.

Dylan Cunningham made the finals without playing after his semi-final opponent dropped out with an injury. Cunningham refereed the Haycocks-Phillips match.

The match was played before an appreciative overflow audience at the Kiva Club in Santa Fe.

     Jaymie Haycocks defeated fellow Englishman Reuben Phillips in straight games in the Kiva Club Open semifinals on Saturday. He'll play American Dylan Cunningham in Sunday's final match.
     Haycocks's match lasted 37 minutes.
     The 32-year-old Haycocks is the tournament’s No. 1 seed and is ranked No. 88 in world.
     The 24-yearold Phillips was the No. 3 seed and is ranked No. 147 in the world.
     The first game was over in a quick 8 minutes. Haycocks won it 11-3.  He won the first three points, then lost two, then ran off a string of five.
     Phillips tinned a number of shots.  After hitting the tin to make it 2-8, he said angrily to himself, “You can’t do this.”
     The second game was longer – 14 minutes. Haycocks won it, 12-10. He jumped to a 4-1 lead, with Phillips hitting the tin twice, put then Phillips won five of the next six points to take a 6-5 lead. In the second half of the game, Haycocks seemed to tire, and tinned himself three times. But with the scored tied 10-10, it was Phillips who missed the final two shots, hitting tin both times.
     The third game went 9 minutes, with Haycocks again prevailing 12-10. Phillips had raced to a 7-3 lead, with Haycocks hitting the tin twice early on. But then Haycocks hit his stride, winning five of the next six points. He won one point on service ace, and seemed to frustrated Phillips by varying his pace and shot selection – including on the serve. Phillips nonetheless tied the game 10-10 but then Phillips hit a perfect drop volley to get to match point. “I needed you to miss that,” said Phillips as much to himself as to anyone. The next point, Phillips hit the tin to end the match.
     Haycocks had cruised in his opening round match, beating Mexico’s Heralio Salaiz Estrada in three quick games, giving up only 12 points in the match.
     In his quarter-finals match, Haycocks had to work a little harder to defeat Nigeria’s Babatunde Ajagbe in three games. He gave up up 23 points in that match.
​     To win his way to the semi-finals, Phillips beat England’s Charlie Lee in a 1-hour, 12-minute, five-game match. The 18-year-old Lee was the tournament’s No. 8 seed (he is World No. 187), and he stretched Phillips with many long rallies.
Phillips was pushed in his opening round match by Adrian Leanza in a three-game match that took 45 minutes to play. While Phillips won the match handily by game score, he had to stay on the court for many long rallies.
     In getting to the semis, Haycocks had not lost a game and had given up just 35 points while scoring 66 of his own.
    By contrast, Phillips had lost two games and given up 56 points to his own total of 66.

     The second semi-final day was cancelled because of injury.
     Edgar Zayas, the 21-year-old, Mexican, dropped out because of a sore knee. He was the tournament’s No 4 seed, and World #157.
     American Dylan Cunningham, 22, thus goes right to Sunday’s final against Jaymie Haycocks. It will be Cunningham’s first-ever appearance in a PSA tournament final.
     The 6-foot-four Cunningham is the tournament’s No. 5 seed. He is ranked No. 179 in the world.
     The final is scheduled to start at noon.
     This is the second annual Kiva Club Open, which is being played at a private squash club in Santa Fe.
The 16 players are competing for ranking points and for $5,000 in prize money.