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TODAY
in Sheffield ... 2012 Day ONE
Steve in Sheffield |
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A full day's
play at three venues, two rounds in some of
the draws ... difficult to follow, so here's
a quick roundup ...
B19: Volland through, James survives
After they played the first round at Fulwood
the U19 Boys came to their traditional
hunting ground at Abbeydale for round two.
 Top
seed Marwan El Shorbagy was first on
the glass court, and the world junior
champion went through 3/0 to face, he
thought, India's Abhishek Pradhan.
But the 9/16 seed found himself embroiled in
a real tussle on the adjacent court against
France's Damien Volland who came from
two games down and saved match balls at 8/10
in the fifth before pulling off an upset
14/12.
England's Ollie Holland followed
Marwan on the glass court and also went
through comfortably enough, and he faces
compatriot Jack Jago who ousted
Belgium's Tom De Mulder.
The bottom half of the draw played in the
evening, and provided the match of the day
as England's 3/4 seed Declan James
survived a torrid 97 minutes against
Belgium's Jan Van Der Herrewegen, coming
from 2/1 down to take the last two games
14/12, 14/12.
"Shame, but so proud of my #1 protégé!
Future is shining bright," tweeted Jan's
coach Mark Andrew Burke.
G19: Sherbini and Whitlock on
course
Just one round at Fulwood as top seed
Nour El Sherbini aims to maintain her
record of never having lost a BJO match (she
missed last year through injury) and
England's Emily Whitlock looks to
take a step up from winning the U17 title
last year.
Egypt's Nouran Badr upset France's
5/8 seed Melissa Alves in five, and Canadian
Hollie Naughton eased past 9/16 seed
Lauren Tamilla in three, to join the
fourteen seeds in tomorrow's second round.
 B17:
Sixteen seeds all win twice
All went according to seeding as the top
sixteen all won two rounds
G17:
Not quite as neat and tidy as the Boys'
draw, with jut the one upset as Egypt's
Raneem Sharaf beat 9/16 seed Emilia
Soini.
Top seed Yathreb Adel, who reached
last year's final while still eligible for
the U15s, was in determined mood as she
declared herself "ready to make amends for
last year."
B15:
Again just one departure from the
anticipated last sixteen, England's Jamie
Todd making it through at the expense of
Isaac Rawcliff who ousted his 9/16 seed in
the first round.
 G15:
The top 16 seeds all had first round byes
before facing the winners of the morning
matches, and 14 of them made it through,
Grace Gear and Nadin Shahin both
beating 9/16 seeds to progress.
B13:
Thirty-two first round matches, just two
unseeded players through so well done to
Jack Cooper and Alexander Engstrom.
G13:
Sixteen matches, sixteen seeds through to
tomorrow, only one of them dropping a game.
"You're sure I'm not on this court ???
Ah, ok then ..."
We should start
seeing the wood for the trees ... or
something like that ... tomorrow, where
we'll be concentrating first on the U19s at
Abbeydale, and see what happens from there
...
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Tania's Back
Things go in cycles, one minute you're
playing in the BJO, the next you're on the
balcony supporting the next set of rising
stars.
Well, not exactly the next minute - in
Tania Bailey's case there's been a few
years gap.
The English former world number four was
runner-up in the U14s before going on to
capture the U19 and U16 titles in 1996 and
1998. In between of course she became World
Junior Champion in 1997 in Rio, and in the
intervening years she's been all over the
world representing herself and England to
great effect.
Today though she was back on her old
stomping ground looking after three
youngsters from Hunts County, trying to work
out the optimal method of going from one to
to the next to keep up to date with her
charges.
"It's certainly going to be a hectic week,"
said the former champion on her way out of
Abbeydale, "but it brings back all the good
memories of the times I've played here as a
junior." |
That's me on that photo!
 If
it's been a few years since Tania was here,
it's been longer for the coach of this
year's Pakistan boys' team: "That's my photo
up there," he told me, "after I lost the
British Open final to Jonah Barrington on
this court."
It turns out that this year the Pakistani
boys have the honour of being coached by
none other than Gogi Allaudin. who
featured in two British Open finals, losing
his other appearance to Qamar Zaman after
beating Geoff Hunt in the semis.
"I played in England for a long time," Gogi
added, "mainly in London. "I won 16
tournaments and it was me, Jonah, Qamar and
Geoff at the top at the time. Back home in
Pakistan the team always come back and tell
me that they saw my photo on the court, so
it's great to come back and see it for
myself.
"We have 11 boys here this year, and have
good chances in all the age groups."
So we'll be seeing more of Gogi during the
week - and after a 26-year absence, why not
!!
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Three Amigos at Abbeydale |
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Where's my racket ??? |
Getting the early bus ...
It's the 2nd Jan, it
must be the BJO
 This
is the 16th year that the BJO has been
hosted in Sheffield, so as you would expect
the transport and administration of the
whole thing is a well-oiled machine,
although strangely, given the fixed 2nd to
6th dates, no-one at the hotel bar on Sunday
night could remember it being held on Monday
to Friday before.
 The
volume of entries - restricted, so that the
draws can be full monrad throughout - mean
that three venues are a must, which makes
coverage of the early rounds tricky, to say
the least.
This year the U19s, boys and girls, play
their first round from 09.00 at Fulwood
before coming back to their usual home at
Abbeydale, where it's the U15 boys who start
proceedings bright and early. Over at
Hallamshire, which traditionally has later
finishes in the first three days, the U13
Boys have the early honour.
So, as ever, we'll bring you what we can,
concentrating on Abbeydale with the
occasional excursion to Hallamshire (it's
just 15 minutes on the bus but you do need
to time the trips carefully), and
contributions from players, managers, fans
are welcomed.
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Lots more photos
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