"I learned quite a lot tonight," said Taiapa, an elite member of the national junior squad for the past two years. "I found out that the A and B graders play very differently."
Part of her lesson was how elite players such as Gilis and Craig bring a different mindset to the courts.
"The A graders are very good at killing the ball whereas the B graders, where I play, rally a lot so I'll have to learn to adapt," said the daughter of Rachel Hurunui and Amesh Taiapa who picked up the game almost a decade ago.
She recalled her parents asking her to go with them to play a game one day but her response had been frankly honest: "What's squash?"
Fast forward and the former Parkvale School pupil appreciates what the indoor sport offers when juxtaposed with team codes.
"It's more me," said Taiapa who receives her coaching from Joel Le Comte.
Squash director Sam Crawford, of Auckland, said last night Gilis and Kiwi boyfriend Paul Coll, the world No 31, were based in the Netherlands six months of the year to ply their trade professionally in Europe.
Crawford said the champs here brought world-class players to the doorstep of youngsters who could gauge their worth and have a better yardstick of what they had to do to bridge that gulf if they had higher aspirations.
The champs has drawn 140 entries across all grades.
Top women's seed, Kiwi Joel King, had a bye last night.
In the other top clash, Kaitlyn Watts beat Rebecca Barnett 11-8, 11-9, 11-7.
In the men's grade, Coll beat Jason van der Walt 3-0 and No 2 Evan Williams prevailed 3-0.
