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TODAY in
Sheffield ... 2012 Day TWO
Steve in Sheffield |
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Just the one
round today in most draws, but it's still a
full day's play, by the end of which we'll
know the quarter-finalists ... stay tuned
...
U19: All Boys' seeds through,
 The
U19 last sixteen matches are spread out over
the day, mainly on Abbeydale's Glass Court
(number 7), and it was the Egyptian top
seeds who opened proceedings.
Nour El Sherbini, unbeaten in
Sheffield, still wearing ankle strapping
after her slip before her match with Nicol
David in Rotterdam, was comfortable enough
against England's Sam Ward, while Marwan
El Shorbagy also won in three, although
yesterday's Damien Volland threatened with a
4/1 lead in the second, quickly snuffed out
by the world junior champion.
Pakistan's 3/4 seed shrugged of a 3-minute
injury timeout after a painful looking dive
(top photo) to beat England's Adam Auckland
in four.
 Egyptian
success continued in the Girls' as unseeded
Nouran Badr and 5/8 Salma Hatem
Esmat both beat English opposition to
progress, and although Victoria
Temple-Murray pushed India's 3/4 seed
Anaka Alankamony hard in all three
games, she too departed before the
quarter-finals.
The bad news for the hosts continued as
France's Julia Lecoq beat 5/8 seed
Katie Smith, edging home 15/13 in a tight
opener before completing the straight-game
upset, but two more Egyptians went through
as Kanzy El Darfrawy won in straight
games while Menat Nasser came from
2-0 down to disappoint France's Oxane Ah Hu.
Finishing off the quarters, Emily
Whitlock was the sole home survivor as
she brushed aside Aparajitha Balamurukan
after a fairly tight opening game.
The Boys
continues with comfortable wins for Mazen
Hisham, Ollie Holland and Fares Desouky.
Declan James made it two Englishmen
still in the draw with a camparatively
comfortable (compared to yesterday's
97-minute comeback at least) straight-game
win over Spaniard Aitor Zunzunegui, and
Nasir Iqbal and Mojhamed Abouelgar made sure
that it was all eight seeds who would
contest the quarter-finals.
In the U15 events there were some
tough matches and a couple of minor upsets,
Egypt's Nadin Shahin ousted 5/8 seed
Georgina Kennedy in the girls' draw and
Jordan's Mohammed Alsarraj inflicted
a rare defeat on a higher-seeded Egyptian,
in this case 5/8 seed Saad El Din Ihab.
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Auckland at full stretch
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U17 & U13 at
Hallamshire
England's Lucy Beecroft became the
first player to put out any of the top four
seeds when she put in a Declan James style
performance, beating American 3/4 seed Maria
Unina 12/10, 5/11, 5/11, 12/10, 12/10.
"I don't know how I kept going," admitted
the British and English U15 champion,
playing in her first major competition at
U17 level. "I didn't have to save any match
balls, but all the games I won were 12/10
and I was so relieved when I took the last
one on my second match ball!"
Beecroft now faces Belgium's 5/8 seed
Nele Gilis.
In the Girls' U13 another 3/4 seed fell as
Egypt's Hania El Hammany beat Elize
Lazarus in four, becoming one of three 9/16
seeds and five Egyptians to reach the
quarters.
The Boys' U17 was witness to the biggest
upset of all though, with Pakistan's
Tayyab Aslam, seeded 9/16, coming from a
game down to beat second seeded Egyptian
Ahmed Effat Ashoush, the only one oif the
top eight to fall.
By the time I arrived all of that was over
of course, and it was the U13 Boys on
court, which is always a delight to watch as
they give their absolute all, rackets often
bigger than themselves but way smaller than
their hearts, total commitment from first
point to last and emotions on full display.
 I'm
not really sure the "There is no finish
line" slogan is really the way to set about
life, but it certainly seems to be the
motive for many of these boys this week.
As it happens this is the draw with more
than most upsets, which isn't that
surprising, both 3/4 seeds being beaten as
three 17/32s secure places in the
quarter-finals.
As you can tell, Day Two was difficult,
coverage-wise ... but with all the
quarter-finals on one court (albeit at both
venues) Day Three should be easier !!
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5/8 seed Miko got some stick for his
passport phota and signature, but won his
last 16 match in the fifth ... |
Mike the Finn
"People still keep asking me about the
English," said Mike Harris, the
former English junior national coach "but
I've been over in Finland for a few years
now, and this year we have a squad of five
who are doing ok so far.
"Out top girl Amelia has just beaten the
senior Finnish number one, she's just 15 so
hopefully there's good things in store for
her.
"I played in this for a few years, at Lambs
in London alongside the likes of Peter
Marshall and David Campion, and I've been to
most of the events in Sheffield as a coach.
"It's always the best tournament of the
year, you get to see all the future star
players, just look at the world rankings and
see who's won this event.
"It's good for players from smaller
countries like Finland to get experience
against better players and to see how they
do things in the powerhouses of Egypt,
Malaysia and so on, they can't learn until
they've been to events like this. It's good
for the English too to see that there's a
big world out there.
"The players all think it so important to
win now, what they don't realise is that
this is their apprentiship, they'll look
back on these events, win or lose, as where
they learnt their best squash.
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