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Western Province Open 2014
03-09 May, Cape Town, South Africa, $10k |
Le Roux takes Cape Town title
Paul Atkinson reports
 Eighty
four minutes later of intense, high paced and intelligent squash and
a South African from Cape Town, Shaun Le Roux, managed to finally
subdue top seed Mohamed Ali Anwar Reda and lift the coveted 65 year
old WP Open trophy! As expected it was a titanic battle between 2
very focused players who were determined to give the capacity crowd
a spectacle…..and what a match it turned out to be!
With no one being able to predict who would come out on top but
everyone in agreement that it would definitely go to 5 after the
first two games ended 12/10 to Reda and then 13/11 to Le Roux, the
momentum shifted continually as these two very different styled
players tried to impose their game on each other.
After losing the second Reda regrouped and managed to go 2-1 up,
winning the third 11-7 but in the end what probably separated the
two professionals was the simple fact that Reda had played a quarter
finals of 96 minutes and a semi-finals of 79 minutes as opposed to
Le Roux spending 49 minutes and 27 minutes on court for the same two
previous rounds. Le Roux could sense that his opponent was starting
to get tired and in turn went all out in the fourth raising the
intensity and pace even further and it showed as he won the game
11/2 in just 10 minutes. Reda tried to hang on in the fifth but
after some truly mammoth rallies and as one spectator put it
“continual paint scrapping backhand lengths” Le Roux eventually
emerge the victor and with it his first PSA title on home soil.
 A
visibly sincere Le Roux had the following to say “The last two weeks
have been really special for me to play in front of my home crowds,
I don’t often get to play here and in front of my family so to see
the huge crowds turn out and create the atmosphere they have for all
the players has been really incredible. Reda and I played just over
a year ago and he won 11-8 in the 5th so it was hard not to think
about that but I felt I was able to give it one last push mentally
towards the end and that made the difference today. A special thank
you to Paul and WP Squash for putting the event on and a massive
thank you to Phil and The Laser Group for supporting the
tournament."
And so five weeks and 4 PSA tournaments later culminating with the
richest tournament in SA, we say goodbye to all our international
guests until next year, wish them a great season ahead and hope they
have nothing but excellent memories and newly forged friendships!
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  Western
Province Open 2014
03-09 May, Cape Town, South Africa, $10k |
Round Two
06 May |
Quarters
07 May |
Semis
08 May |
Final
09 May |
[1] Ali Anwar Reda (Egy)
11/3, 11/8, 14/12 (42m)
Amaad Fareed (Pak) |
[1] Ali Anwar Reda
9/11, 12/10, 9/11, 11/7, 12/10 (96m)
[5] Nathan Lake |
[1] Ali Anwar Reda
9/11, 11/5, 11/7, 4/11, 11/7 (79m)
[4] Tom Ford |
[1] Ali Anwar Reda
10/12, 13/11, 7/11, 11/2, 11/6(84m)
[2] Shaun le Roux |
[5] Nathan Lake (Eng)
11/9, 11/2, 11/5 (32m)
[WC] Christo Potgieter (Rsa) |
[8] Thoboki Mohohlo (Rsa)
5/11, 11/5, 11/7, 11/4 (35m)
Jakob Dirnberger (Aut) |
[8] Thoboki Mohohlo
11/3, 11/9, 8/11, 11/7 (51m)
[4] Tom Ford |
[4] Tom Ford (Eng)
11/5, 11/3, 11/2 (28m)
Jean-Pierre Brits (Rsa) |
[Q] Hossam Nasser (Egy)
10/12, 11/4, 8/11, 11/6, 11/6 (52m),
[3] Tayyab Aslam (Pak) |
[3] Tayyab Aslam
11/8, 11/9, 13/11 (50m)
[LL] Gary Wheadon |
[LL] Gary Wheadon
11/3, 11/4, 11/4 (27m)
[2] Shaun le Roux |
[LL] Gary Wheadon (Rsa)
11/9, 11/5, 7/11, 11/6 (47m)
[6] Alex Ingham (Eng) |
Munro Montanus (Rsa)
11/8, 10/12, 11/5, 11/7 (35m)
[7] Muhammad Saqib Yousaf (Pak) |
[7] Muhammad Saqib Yousaf
6/11, 11/8, 11/5, 11/6 (49m)
[2] Shaun le Roux |
Shehab Essam (Egy)
11/5, 11/4, 11/2 (30m)
[2] Shaun le Roux (Rsa) |
Round One:
[1] Ali Anwar Reda (Egy) bt [Q] Ahsan Ayaz (Pak) 11-7, 11-3,
11-4 (34m)
Amaad Fareed (Pak) bt [Q] Rodney Durbach (Rsa) 11-7, 9-11,
5-11, 11-3, 11-9 (54m)
[WC] Christo Potgieter (Rsa) bt Haseeb Gul (Pak) 11-6, 11-3,
11-4 (19m)
[5] Nathan Lake (Eng) bt [Q] Daniel Smith (Rsa) 11-4, 11-0,
11-2 (22m)
[8] Thoboki Mohohlo (Rsa) bt [Q] Aaron Fuchs (Rsa) 11-4,
11-5, 11-8 (26m)
Jakob Dirnberger (AUT) bt Courtney West (Aus) 11-2, 11-7,
12-10 (31m)
Jean-Pierre Brits (Rsa) bt Marc ter Sluis (Ned) 11-8, 7-11,
8-11, 15-13, 11-7 (83m)
[4] Tom Ford (Eng) bt Kyle Maree (Rsa) 11-6, 11-4, 11-9
(28m)
[3] Tayyab Aslam (Pak) bt Jonathan Maloney (Eng) 11-7, 11-5,
11-6 (24m)
[Q] Hossam Nasser (Egy) bt Baba Tunde Ajagbe (Ngr)
11-9,7-11,11-4,5-11,11-5 (42m)
[LL] Gary Wheadon (Rsa) bt Gareth Naidoo (Rsa) 11-6, 11-8,
12-10 (36m)
[6] Alex Ingham (Eng) bt Anthony Graham (Eng) 11-8, 11-5
ret.
[7] Muhammad Saqib Yousaf (Pak) bt [Q] Paul Atkinson (Rsa)
11-6, 11-5, 11-5 (21m)
Munro Montanus (Rsa) bt [LL] Nasr Khan (Pak) 11-2, 11-1,
11-1 (18m)
Shehab Essam (Egy) bt Ahmed Effat Ashoush (Egy) 11-3, 11-8,
11-5 (29m)
[2] Shaun le Roux (Rsa) bt Mubarak Mohsin (Uae) 11-5, 11-5,
11-5 (15m)
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Top seeds through to Cape Town final
Paul Atkinson reports
The lucky loser Gary Wheadon’s phenomenal run has finally
been stopped by another local boy and number two seed Shaun Le
Roux.
From the very first point Le Roux made sure that Wheadon felt every
single lunge after 5 gruelling days of qualifiers and main draw
matches and the plan worked perfectly as he proved just too strong,
too quick and too accurate for Wheadon who was noticeably hurting
from all the previous matches.
Wheadon gave it his all as he always does but Le Roux never gave him
an inch and ended up winning 3-0 in just over 27 minutes.
Wheadon had this to say: “Having stopped playing on tour a few
years ago, I relish the chance to give the boys still on tour a bit
of a run, even more so on my own doorstep.
"To be up in my qualifier, then down, then up and then down and out
in 5 was hard but two people told me I would draw my own name and
now the only mistake I made was not buying a lottery ticket on the
way home that night! After then seeing the draw, I felt if I played
well I could trouble one or two of the guys.”
The other semi-final between Ali Anwar Reda and Tom Ford
was a completely opposite match lasting 79 minutes with both players
showing incredible movement, superb retrieving, fantastic shots and
very cool heads as the momentum shifted back and forth constantly.
Ford managed to win the first 11-9 after a short blood stoppage at 9
all for a cut on his hand but Reda quickly regained his composer and
went on to win the next two 11/5 and 11/7 quite comfortably. It was
then Ford’s turn to find his form and touch again as he won the
fourth 11/4 only to come out in the fifth and find himself
immediately under pressure again from a focused and determined Reda.
Great entertaining squash followed and even though it was tight in
the end with Reda only winning the 5th 11/7 he always was in front
and looked in control at all times in the final game.
So we move onto the finals with both the number one and two seeds
ready to do battle in a repeat of last year’s final between an
Egyptian and a South African.
It was Egyptian Aboulghar who triumphed over local player Leeuw last
year, will history repeat itself or will a South African raise the
trophy this time around?
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Wheadon run continues into Cape Town semis
Paul Atkinson reports
Into the semi-finals we go with an Englishman, an Egyptian and
two South Africans left!
First match up in the quarters, Englishman Tom Ford
continued his great run of form in his fourth tournament in a
month in SA with a comfortable win over South African Thoboki
Mohohlo in four entertaining games.
The number one seeded Egyptian Ali Anwar Reda, world
number 42, was then pushed all the way to wire by England's
Nathan Lake, ranked 115, who showed some incredible skill in
moving Reda from corner to corner and eventually earning himself
a match ball at 10/9 in the 5th only to hit the ball out, clip
the tin and then clip the tin again to lose three quick points
in a row and with it his chance of causing a major upset.
All credit to Reda for his sheer tenacity and self belief though
in a match lasting 96 minutes!
Next up was local boy and second seed Shaun Le Roux who
did not start well, making too many unforced errors until
finally settling down mid way through the second to win in four
after losing the 1st game 11/6.
The last match of the evening saw the lucky loser Gary
Wheadon continue his jolly ride, convincingly beating the
number three seed Tayyab Aslam in three rather quick games.
With Shaun and Gary facing each other in the bottom half
semi-final, SA will be guaranteed a finalist against either one
of two players who seem to be getting stronger and stronger as
the week progresses.Wheadon gatecrashes WP
quarters
Paul Atkinson reports
Seven of the top eight seeds progressed into the quarter finals
of the WP Open with a relative degree of comfort. The number 3
seed, Tayyab Aslam, was however made to work hard though as he
was taken to five by Egyptian qualifier Hossan Nasser.
Maybe the biggest surprise of the evening was the ease in which
South African number 2 seed Shaun Le Roux beat the youngster
Shehab Essam from Egypt. Shehab had a great tournament last week
losing 3-2 to eventual winner Oliver Pett but tonight Shaun
truly showed how much he has improved in the last year and how
disciplined his squash has become in showing how to close off
the court and to be patient.
The story of the night though is our lucky loser Gary Wheadon,
who after drawing his own name after losing in the final round
of qualifiers, has gone on to beat the number 6 seed Alex Ingham
in four and has now progressed into the quarter finals himself.
The tournament moves into the business end tomorrow and on
voting day in South Africa it is going to be very interesting to
see who gets the most support from the enthusiastic local crowd
with some great matches lined up.
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