Tue 18-Sep, Round One:
BGP opens with 'The Longest Day"
in Wolverhampton ...
 The
withdrawal of Egyptians
Karim Darwish
and
Amr Shabana
from the main draw of the Springfield British Grand Prix saw
Borja Golan
and
Simon Rosner
promoted to the main draw which starts in Manchester on Friday.
After a couple of shuffles, the remaining top-ranked player in
the qualifying draw, India’s
Saurav Ghosal,
received a bye to tomorrow’s qualifying finals.
Those three will be grateful for the rest days as they witnessed
a series of marathon qualifying matches on the Wolverhampton
Lawn Tennis and Squash Club courts.
Ghosal will meet England’s
Jonathan Kemp,
who proved too strong for compatriot
OIlie Holland.
Holland led in both of the first two games, losing out 12-10 in
the first which he should have won. However an increasingly
large number of typical inspired winners broke down Holland’s
resistance providing Kemp with a 3/0 win in just 35 minutes, the
shortest match of the day.
The opening match of the night saw locals
Chris Ryder
and
Jaymie Haycocks
battle for 74 minutes before Ryder, from 2/1 down, came through
to close out the match 11-5,11-8. Ryder, coming back from
illness, looked out of the match at the end of the third game,
but he took the last two games, taking the ball early and
pushing Jaymie to the back of the court while playing some
brilliant backhand drop shots.
France’s
Mathieu Castagnet,
ranked World No.37, was originally scheduled to take on
Germany’s Simon Rosner, the world number 18. The redraw offered
Castagnet an easier route and he proved too strong for
Wolverhampton’s coach
Darren Lewis,
defeating him 11-6, 11-8, 11-7 in 40 minutes which according to
Lewis “felt more like 2 hours!”
Lewis retired from the PSA World tour several years ago and had
the support of a very vocal Wolverhampton crowd which carried
him through the early stages of each of the three games.
An all-French qualifying final looked likely as world #26
Marwan El Shorbagy
went two games down against
Gregoire Marche,
seeded 21 places below the Egyptian double world junior
champion.
Cutting out the unforced errors that had contributed to his
losing the first two games, Shorbagy levelled the score at two
game all but the fifth saw him making the same sort of errors as
in the first two games, only securing the decider 11-9 after 70
minutes of play.
"Happy with my performance andn looking forward to play another
frenchman tomorrow," tweeted a relieved Marwan.
The first seeding upset of the night came as England’s
Adrian Waller,
ranked 16 places below his opponent
Max Lee
from Hong Kong, secured a 3/1 victory in 75 minutes in a match
played at a furious pace. Waller always looked the more
comfortable of the two and although Lee took a close fought
third game, he couldn’t out hit Waller sufficiently well to win
the fourth.
The last two matches of the evening were the longest, and
provided another guaranteed English qualifier.
After 84 minutes in a match punctuated by sixty-one decisions
and numerous discussions with the referee World No.38
Chris Simpson
finally overcame Siddarth Suchde of India 11-6, 5-11,
12-10, 14-12 .
In an epic final match and the biggest upset of the night
England’s Joe Lee, who wasn’t even in the draw at the
start of the day, came through to defeat Scotland’s Alan
Clyne. Clyne fought back valiantly from two games down, but
eventually succumbed 11-8 in the fifth after 94 minutes.
"Felt like I grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory tonight,"
tweeted Clyne, adding "plenty of things to work on before the
next event."Unusually -
but understandably given the change of venue for the main draw -
the four qualifiers will have a day off before taking to the
all-glass court at the National Squash Centre in Manchester.
On tonight's evidence, they'll need it ...
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Schedule & Tickets
Draw & Results
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Schedule & Tickets
Draw & Results
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