Amr Swelin took the Baltimore Cup title with a very impressive performance in the final in front of a capacity crowd. This victory looked highly unlikely in the early rounds as the Italian had faced match balls in his first two rounds!

Arnold started off strongly and raced into a 5-1 lead, but Swelin’s greater consistency saw him claw back the deficit and take the first game 11/7.

From then on Swelin looked very solid, moving the ball around the court well and retrieving Arnold’s best shots, frustrating the tall Australian into making too many mistakes. From 4-6 down in the third, Swelin won 6 straight points before clinching the tile with his second match ball.
  

11/9, 7/11, 9/11, 11/7, 11/4

[4] Scott Arnold

11/7, 11/6, 11/7 (40m)

[2] Amr Swelim

11/9, 11/5, 11/8

[2] Amr Swelim

11 Nov, Qualifying Finals:

Graeme Wilson bt Erik Tepos     11/7, 9/11, 8/11, 13/11, 11/9 (75mins)
Elvinn Keo bt Peter Creed         13/11, 7/11, 11/5, 8/11, 11/9 (78 mins)
Joel Hinds bt Patrick Chifunda    6/11, 11/4, 11/3, 9/11, 11/2 (69 mins)
Lukas Jelinek bt Kamran Khan   11/9, 9/11, 11/6, 11/6 (70 mins)


10 Nov, Qualifying Round One:

Patrick Chifunda bt Graham Bassett     7/11, 11/8, 11/7, 11/8   
Joel Hinds bt Lazarus Chilufya                       11/4, 11/0, 11/8
Kamran Khan bt Lekgotla Mosope                 11/2, 11/8, 13/11     
Lukas Jelinek bt Taylor Tutrone                      11/5, 11/8, 11/5
Graeme Wilson bt Landon Royals                   11/2, 11/1, 11/2    
Erik Tepos bt Paul Mathieson                         11/4, 11/4, 11/7
Peter Creed bt Ned Marks                             11/7, 11/4, 11/6   
Elvinn Keo bt Ryan Thompson               9/11, 11/9, 11/6, 11/3

Swelim showed no signs of fatigue from his two epic five setters in the tournament so far. Abbas was slightly off the pace, and Swelim took full advantage, looking very sharp as he won three close games. There was some excellent shot making from both players.

This was a high quality match with Arnold’s attacking style battling against Salazar’s relentless retrieving. There were some fantastic rallies, with the majority of the points ending with winners rather than errors.

Arnold started the fifth game with a series of winning kills and volley drops to move out to an 8-1 lead before closing out the game and the match 11-4.


13-Nov, Quarters:
Hinds' run ends at last
Ben Garner reports

The top four seeds all made it through to the semi-finals, but in contrasting styles…

Scott Arnold won a close three game match against Elvinn Keo, with not too much to separate the two players. The main difference between the two was Keo’s slightly higher error count, especially at the end of each game.

Mohammed Abbas was mightily impressive tonight. He dominated the first two games against Cesar Salazar - hitting tight, dying lengths followed by some delightfully soft drop shots to keep Salazar moving around the four corners of the court. Salazar battled gamely but Abbas’ class was evident in his quality shot making. The third game was much closer but Abbas’ experience came through in the final couple of points.

For the second night running Amr Swelim found himself in an epic battle. Yesterday the no.2 seed was 10/9 down in the fifth and today, against David Phillips, he found himself in exactly the same position, on the same court 22 hours later! Once again the Italian maintained his composure, saving three match balls to win 14/12 in the final game!

Joel Hinds’ magical run eventually ended, but not without a fight. This was his 10th match in 11 days across two cities, having won the Pittsburgh Open as a qualifier last week. Both players battled hard, and the referee was often required to determine the outcome of the point, before top seed Arturo Salazar sneaked through 12/10 in the fourth.