Hong Kong Football Club 2014
19-24 May, Hong Kong, $25k x 2

[2] Amanda Sobhy (Usa) 3-0 [3] Rachael Grinham (Aus)
                               11-6, 11-2, 11-9 (23m)
[4] Max Lee (Hkg) 3-2 [3] Ong Beng Hee (Mas)
                                11-3, 10-12, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 (74m) 

Hong Kong's Max Lee emerged victorious against Malaysian Ong Beng Hee in an all-Asian finale to the 2014 Hong Kong Football Club International 25 in Hong Kong today.

Lee delighted the capacity crowd at the HKFC by securing his first ever PSA World Tour $25k tournament title in a thrilling 3-2, 11-3, 10-12, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 win against the Malaysian number one.

Having already taken out the tournament's number two seed Adrian Grant in the semi-finals, Lee, the World No.32, looked to assert his authority on the contest, the duo's first ever on the PSA World Tour, early and surged to a quick one game lead.

But experienced campaigner Ong Beng Hee fought back to take the emphasis and looked to be in a commanding position when ahead 2-1, but the local hope resurged again and held on to take an edgy fifth game 11-6 and seal one of the biggest wins of his career to date.

As for the ladies, young US squash star Amanda Sobhy picked up one of the biggest Tour titles of her brief career to date when she defeated Australia's former world number one and world champion Rachael Grinham in straight games in today's final of the HKFC WSA 25 in Hong Kong.

The 20-year-old US number one reached the climax of the WSA Silver 25 event at the Hong Kong Football Club in Happy Valley without dropping a game - then crushed 37-year-old Grinham 11-6, 11-2, 11-9 in just 23 minutes to extend her remarkable record in WSA World Tour finals to 12 wins from 13 appearances.

Finals Round Up by Dallas Reid

Ladies Final:
Amanda Sobhy US (2) v Rachael Grinham AUS (3)

A classic match up between one of the long established greats of the women’s game, against one of the most outstanding young players ever on the women’s circuit. Rachael (37) spent 16 months as the women’s world number one and has accumulated 32 WSA titles over her illustrious career. Amanda (20), is the only woman to win 4 WSA titles at the age of 16, which beats even the legendary Nichol David. Having a father (and original coach) who reached the top 30 of the PSA rankings can’t hurt apparently.

The first game started steadily with both players trading points. At 5 - all however, Amanda seemed to start to dominate and ran out 11-6. She then took that momentum and dominated the second with the help of some unforced errors from Rachael. She reinforced this with her ability to pick up some of Rachael’s tightest drops, and re-drop with extreme accuracy and claimed the second 11-2.

Despite the gulf in the second game, Rachael came out full of fight in the third and in her trade-mark style fought for every point. At 8-9 Amanda appealed for a let when impeded trying to reach a very tight drop shot. When awarded a ”no let” she pointed out “I’ve got long legs”. Sadly the referee remained unmoved. Notwithstanding, she kept her focus and closed out the match 11-9 to win 3-0.

After the match, Rachael commented that she simply could not hit the ball tight enough and that allowed Amanda to dominate the game with her own powerful and accurate shots. She then added, “Amanda is a strong player, and is just getting stronger”.

Amanda’s reaction to the game was that it was a very fast paced and intensive game. Her concern was to try and keep her focus after winning the second game by such a wide margin as she was fully aware of Rachael’s determination and ability to turn games around.

Amanda is still a full time student at Harvard for one more year, but this means she now has Thierry Lincou as her coach. After watching her Ong Beng Hee said “Give her a year and she will be top ten”. I would not be against that.

Men’s Final:
Max Lee HK (4) v Ong Beng Hee MAS (3)

The men’s final was an all Asian affair which underlines the growing strength of Asia in world squash. After the elimination of the top two seeds Adrian Grant and Alistair Walker, Max was narrowly the highest ranked layer left in the draw at a world ranking of 32 against Ong’s of 34. This narrow difference and their 3 and 4 seedings suggested we were in for a very tight final. Interestingly this was their first meeting in a PSA event.

Max came out full of determination in the first, picking up everything, and capitalized on Ong’s late match the previous evening. Although the rallies were long and tight, the game score was 11-3.

Loosening up, Ong then came right back in the second, and despite Max continuing to retrieve apparently impossible shots, Ong won 12-10. He continued his good form in the third to win 11-8, but max ensured that every point cost Ong a huge effort.

By the fourth, this investment was starting to pay off, and finally Ong reached the point where once out of position he was no longer able to fully cover the court. At one point he opened the back door as if to talk to the referee. After a pause he said “I don’t have anything to say – I’m just dying”. Max closed out the fourth 11-5. Clearly exhausted, Ong kept in the rallies and went for attacking shots at every opportunity. However Max was scenting blood, and just kept retrieving, and closed out the 5th 11-6 for a very hard fought 3-2 win and his first 25k+ tournament win of his career which will certainly push up his world ranking.

Afterwards Max commented that he knew he was going to have to outrun Ong, and felt prepared to do that. His main problem was Ong’s style which he described as “stop-go” which disrupted his movement pattern. Luckily he had a very strong 1st game, and then in the fourth there were two extremely tough rallies which sapped Ong’s legs.

Ong admitted that Max had played the better match, although he felt the late match he played on Friday certainly was not a benefit in facing such a fit opponent. He also commented that he enjoyed playing at the HK Football Club with such a fair and supportive crowd for both players, despite one being the local “favourite”.

Two great finals very much enjoyed by the capacity crowd at the HKFC.
 

Draws & Results

11-6, 11-8, 11-5 (45m)

[4] Max Lee

11-3, 10-12, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 (74m)

[3] Ong Beng Hee

 10-12, 11-3, 11-9, 11-7 (59m)

[8] Leo Au

Qualifying:

 

11-8, 11-9, 12-10 (31m)

[3] Rachael Grinham

11-6, 11-2, 11-9 (23m)

[2] Amanda Sobhy

11-4, 12-10, 11-6

[2] Amanda Sobhy

Qualifying :

 

Draws & Results

Twitter: @HKFCsquash

Reports by Nikolaj Shultz - WSA
The WSA quarter-final between Fernandez (GUY) ranked 19 versus Arnold (MAS) started very well for Arnold. It looked as it may be the second women’s upset in the tournament when Arnold was up 2-0 (11-2, 11-8) in what was a somewhat one sided affair.

Into the 3rd game and Fernandez started to play the match, one might say. She took the 3rd 11-7 and 4th 11-3 to take the match to a final game and decider. It was, again, top quality squash with aggressive shots, long rallies, questionable calls by the referee and an intensity rarely seen the HKFC. It was again wonderful squash for the spectators. Fernandez had overcame the poor start and took the final game 11-5, in a match that lasted 86 minutes. A well-deserved applause to both players was only in order. Arnold who came through the qualification round put up a good fight, challenged and played for her chance. International squash will surely see more to her in future.

Next up was then Sobhy (US) and El Torky, ranked 15 and 28 respectively. Clearly Sobhy controlled the game right from the beginning with good tight shots, and perseverance to win. She had the power to play at a faster pace than El Torky could handle. A reasonably easy 3-0 (11-5, 11-1, 11-4) win to see her through to the semi-final tomorrow.

PSA
The second day of the Hong Kong WSA and PSA tournament gave us another big day of squash in the quarter finals. Hong Kong's own top player, Max Lee (KHG) was up against Mazen Hesham (EGY), PSA ranked respectively 33 and 38. It was a game best described as fast & furious. Max, perhaps with the better calm game plan versus Mazen, the young fast player seeking the kill shots. It was tight shots all the way, wonderful pick-ups and rallies that went on and on, corner to corner. Max taking the game 11-7.

The second game picked up the intensity and pace by both players. it is fair to say, both played their best. Max took the game 12-10, to take the lead,2-0. As the third game started, it was clear the game grew in intensity and quality. It was fast paced, intense, good corner shots, great pick-ups, and unsurprisingly, a fair amount of questioning the referee. Long rallies and an immense running regime made the third game, in particular, and the match in general a treat for the spectators.

Both players fought well and the score line was 9-9. Then we had what arguably was the rally of the match. Max took the game 11-9, and the match 3-0. While the score line is clear, the match could have gone either way.

Perhaps Max had slightly more luck, or the home court advantage player. Nevertheless, a great squash game with two very talented players!

Next quarter was Adrian Grant (ENG) against Adnan (Mas), ranked 20 and 34 respectively. From the start it was clear Adrian was in control and had the better shots, and the better fitness. It was a 3-0 win to Adrian and he is on to the semi -final tomorrow.

Finally, the match of the day was the much anticipated match with Hong Kong's own Leo Au (HKG) and Alister Walker (ENG), ranked 34 and 20 respectively. It was a tense match.

Alister took the first game 11-6, but Leo was only warming up and got back into the match taking the second 11.9. 1-1 in games. Ali fought back, and dug deep to get the edge and took the game 11-9.

2-1 to Ali. It was clear that this was a match of experience versus perseverance. Leo played well, few mistakes and played the ball back from all corners, changing the pace and generally appeared to get into the match short by shot, step by step, rally by rally. Leo took the 4th game by 11-8.

The crowd was going wild and following every shot vigorously. Ali, a HKFC long time darling versus Leo the local HK kid. It was hard for many to pick a side.

The fifth and final game, and Leo, the young blood came out firing. In no time, he took it to 8-1 and from there it was only a matter of time. Tiredness, fitness, friendly discussions with the quality referring and crowd support might have had an impact. Leo took the game and the match 3-2, in 75 minutes.

Ben Pawlyn, a long time squash aficionado, watched the game with a few pints and enthusiastically summed up the game with 'I'd say it was damn fine game'. We could not agree more.

Leo after cooling down took time and comment and was happy with the match, He said' 'I’d played my chances and tried to get the ball back to him, and not make mistakes'. Asked what he attributed the win, he said his body condition and fitness was the reason for the difference today from two year back, when he played Ali.

'I am able to play slower and change the pace of the game, and was able to get to the ball and get them back' When asked to the relatively quick 5th game, Leo said 'I was able to keep the pace and get the ball back and just play my own game'. A tired and visibly pleased Leo is looking forward to the tomorrow game.
 

Draws & Results

Twitter: @HKFCsquash

19 May:
Qualifying under way at HKFC
Women's Repport, by Vishal Gupta

Delia Arnold (MAS) vs Ho Ka-Wing (HKG)

First seed Delia Arnold from Malaysia won in straight sets (11-6, 11-5, 11-7) against Ho Ka-Wing of Hong Kong. Delia seemed very comfortable right from the first point and was hitting the cross courts and parallels with great precision and success.

Ho, on the other hand, was hesitant and seemed restricted in her stroke play. She took time to open up but by that time she was already trailing 5 points. The initial points difference seemed too high for Ho to pose any threat to Delia when she started scoring few points on each hand over. The first set ended 11-6 in Delia's favour without breaking much sweat.

The second set was like a replay of the first one with Delia only more focused this time. Ho showed her good game in spurts. Delia had already started understanding Ho's placements which resulted in some long rallies. Ho was showing signs of tiredness by this time. Delia finished off the second set 11-5 on her serve and Ho hitting the board in return. The third set ran longer than the first two with Ho trying to fight her way back into the match and Delia was making Ho move to all four corners of the court while herself just moving around the center.

Ho took early lead in the set showing her fighting spirit but could not hold on to it. Delia overcame the point difference and then gained the lead in just two hand overs. If only Ho would have shown this game from the first set, Delia might have been worked up in subsequent sets giving some hope to Ho. It was simply not Ho's day and she lost the last set 7-11 and the match. Throughout the match, players were very respectful of each other and scored high on fair play.

Delia obviously looked relaxed in the post match conversation. On being asked if she found the match easy. She replied that Ho did give her a good challenge and she was only focusing on a point at a time for most of the game. In the third set when she knew that match is in her control, did she start placing and conserve her energy for the next day.

Overall it was an easy win for Delia with Ho showing flashes of good stroke play. Ho will get to learn a lot from this game.

Dave Cross reports on the men

The first men’s qualifier match of the 2014 HKFC PSA International 25 on the newly renovated show court 7 featured one of Hong Kong’s local heroes, HKFC’s Phil Head against Muhammad Saqib Yousaf of Pakistan.

The unranked Head with the home court advantage who's last appearance on the tour over 10 years ago was feeling in good spirits, trading his youth for experience with his much younger world ranked 128 opponent Muhammad with his sights on the main draw.

The first game, both players trading points early on with Head going 5-3 up before Muhammad began to get into his stride, taking the ball early, volleying and not giving Head much time to recover between shots. The younger player having a little more in the tank left to close out the first game 11-7.

The second game and Muhammad taking an early lead of 4-2, Head fighting back to 6-6 before Muhammad began to employ the front court tickle boast with great success catching Head stranded on the side wall on more than one occasion. After fighting hard to stay in contention Head began to lose his grip on Muhammad as he pulled away to win the second 11-8.

The third game and Head by this point perhaps feeling tiredness in his legs as he tried to stay in contention but Muhammad the younger and fitter of the two making use of his superior fitness as he continued to move Head around the court and hit winners with great purpose taking a strong 7-3 lead. Both players by this point happy to trade winners as the match reached it’s conclusion 11-6 and 3-0 to Muhammad 11/7, 11/8, 11/6.

Both players leaving happy with their performance. Muhammad with a solid performance and deservedly progressing into the next round we he is likely to face a stiffer test.

Head “I was in it for the first two games, but in the third the legs began to go as Muhammad began to play his impressive tickle boast and hit winners with great accuracy. Courts were great and very true”.

Muhammad “the courts played really well, not the first time I have played on glass courts, these are slightly different though but very good. I hope to play well and progress to the main draw, but first I have another match tomorrow which could be against my friend and team mate.”