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Tue 18th Sep - Day ONE |
Day One Photogallery
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The 2007 edition of the British
Open got under way at noon at the National Squash Centre in
Manchester with Men's qualifying round one ... |
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Men's Qualifying Round One:
[1] Jonathan Kemp
(Eng) bye
Yasir Butt (Pak) bt Stuart Crawford (Sco)
9/11, 11/7, 11/9, 5/11, 11/3 (50m)
[5/8] Saurav Ghosal (Ind) bt Alan Clyne (Sco)
11/7, 11/7, 11/6 (33m)
Aaron Frankcomb (Aus) bt Nafiizwan Adnan (Mas)
11/5, 11/3, 13/11 (55m)
[3/4] Davide Bianchetti (Ita) bt Eddie Charlton (Eng)
11/3, 11/5, 11/4 (38m)
Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) bt Tom Hoevenaars (Ned)
11/9, 15/13, 11/6 (42m)
[5/8] Stacey Ross (Eng) bt Joel Hinds (Eng)
11/7, 11/4, 11/4 (37m)
Jon Harford (Eng) bt James Snell (Eng)
11/2, 12/10, 11/6 (28m)
Julien Balbo (Fra) bt David Barnett (Eng)
11/4, 11/8, 11/7 (36m)
[5/8] Dylan Bennett (Ned) bt Chris Fuller (Eng)
11/6, 11/1, 11/2 (26m)
Simon Rosner (Ger) bt Tom Pashley (Eng)
11/6, 11/6, 11/3 (27m)
[3/4] Daryl Selby (Eng) bt Alex Stait (Eng)
11/5, 30 rtd (12m)
Bradley Hindle (Aus) bt Shaun Le Roux (Eng)
10/12, 11/6, 11/4, 7/11, 11/9 (75m)
John Rooney (Irl) bt [5/8] Chris Simpson (Eng)
9/11, 11/1, 11/3, 11/4 (43m)
Farhan Mehboob (Pak) bt Lewis Walters (Eng)
11/3, 11/9, 11/7 (22m)
[2] Bradley Ball (Eng) bye |
Day One Roundup
 The
2007 Dunlop British Open kicked off at the National Squash
Centre in Manchester's Sportcity complex with fourteen men's
qualifying matches.
Three scheduled competitors – Chris Ryder, Mark Krajcsak and
Darren Lewis – were caught in traffic and missed the 10am
qualifying draw, which gave reserve Stuart Crawford entry into
the draw as top seeds Jon Kemp and Bradley Ball were awarded
byes into tomorrow's finals.
The first winner of the day was the Netherlands' Dylan
Bennett, who eased past 'local' Chris Fuller, immediately
followed by the quickest win of the day for Daryl Selby
after Alex Stait decided that the bug he started suffering from
last night had taken too much out of him.
 Mixed
fortunes followed for two former European Junior champions.
Simon Rosner, fresh form collecting the European Clubs title
with Paderborn, breezed past Tom Pashley, but Chris Simpson
became the only seeded casualty when John Rooney
recovered from a game down to reach the finals in impressive
fashion.
The two Pakistani players in qualifying won in contrasting
styles, Farhan Mehboob looking as good as his recent
results suggest as he beat Lewis Walters in straight games,
while Yasir Butt was taken the full distance by
last-man-in Crawford.
The longest match of the day saw England's Shaun Le Roux lose
out in five – again – to Australian Bradley Hindle in a
match that was fiercely contested from start to end, Hindle
finally prevailing 11/9 in the fifth.
 No
joy for the two players who came through the pre-qualifiers,
James Snell and Eddie Charlton losing out to Jon Harford
and Davide Bianchetti respectively, but both Indian
entrants progressed without too much trouble – Saurav Ghosal
proving the speedier of two speedsters against Alan Clyne as
Ritwik Bhattacharya pulled clear after two close games
against Tom Heovenaars.
Last man through was Stacey Ross, too experienced and
steady for another English youngster Joel Hinds.
Sixteen matches tomorrow as the eight qualifiers for the main
draw are decided and the women's qualifying commences …
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Dunlop British Open
QUOTE BOX |
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Julien Balbo
(Fra) bt David Barnett (Eng)
11/4, 11/8, 11/7 (36m)
 "It's
my first British Open, I played in the Juniors at under 14, but
I started PSA quite late and my ranking wasn't good enough to
get me into the event, it's a tough tournament. Sometimes on the
bigger events you have to decide if it's worth coming to play a
couple of games and lose money …
"I've played Dylan [Bennett] four times, I won the first two but
he won the last two, maybe because he's young and improving, but
I'll be trying to do my best!"
 "I
didn't feel good all the way through – I'm not in good form at
the moment and he didn't have to do anything special to win."
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Simon Rosner
(Ger) bt Tom Pashley (Eng) 11/6, 11/6, 11/3 (27m)
 "It's
my first senior British Open, after about seven times in the
Junior, so that's a good start. I'd played Tom a few times
before so I knew what to expect and was prepared in my mind what
I needed to do.
"I had one day back in Paderborn before coming here. It was
great to be part of the winning team in the European Club
Championships in Budapest. Last time I had too many points so it
didn't make sense for me to play. It was even nice to be able to
win it the first time I played for the team."
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Bradley Hindle
(Aus) bt Shaun Le Roux (Eng) 10/12, 11/6, 11/4, 7/11,
11/9 (75m)
 "It
was just two competitive people wanting to win.
"I played well in the first and felt in control, but all of a
sudden it was 8/5 to him. He might have upped the tempo a bit,
but it didn't feel like it to me so not really sure what
happened there.
"I took the second and third, and the ball dropped right off in
the last two games, all of a sudden we were hitting winners from
dropshots - it wasn't as if we were exhausted but it became
pretty tough."
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Farhan Mehboob
(Pak) bt Lewis Walters (Eng)
11/3, 11/9, 11/7 (22m)
 "It's
my second time in the British Open, I've been playing well
recently so I'm hoping to have some good results. I wanted to
get off quickly as I have an important match against Bradley
[Ball] who had bye, tomorrow. I like the courts, and the cool
conditions suit me so hopefully I can do well.
"I beat the second and third seeds to reach the CNS final and
lost to Karim Darwish, those results took my ranking from 54 to
40, and I'm playing the big tournaments – here, Hong Kong, the
World Open, so I hope I can go higher.
"I'm training with my uncle Jansher – who's making a comeback
next month - Aamir, Mansoor and some others. It's great to be
able to play with him, he's a legend but it's so hard to play
against him."
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[3/4] Davide
Bianchetti (Ita) bt Eddie Charlton (Eng) 11/3, 11/5, 11/4
(38m)
 "I
feel good, I felt comfortable today, although I’m not that mad
about those courts. This is my third tournament since the start
of September, I’m fit, and I’ve got the matches in the legs,
something I normally struggle with.
"Training with Marcus brought on me a lot, not only he is a
great coach, not only he is an excellent player, and he can feed
me, and correct my game, but he pushes me to the limit every
time. So I have now somebody to play with, and it’s the worst
case scenario for me, as the coach beats the player every single
time!
 "That
was good, I was pleased with that. I had to play five
pre-qualifying matches to get here so I was always going o enjoy
this experience.
"t felt like I was in quite a lot of the rallies, but the points
on the scoreboard weren't increasing. He's really really
skilful, he was dominating me and moving me from corner to
corner, but I was doing the same to him in patches.
"It's a confidence thing, plus he's got the experience and he's
a lot stronger …"
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John Rooney (Irl) bt [5/8]
Chris Simpson (Eng) 9/11, 11/1, 11/3, 11/4 (43m)
"I started off with the wrong game, very one-paced. I got some
good advice after the first, so I just started to take the ball
earlier which change the whole game and upset his rhythm.
"I've only been back in full training since June, but I'm fully
back now so I'm hoping to get fit over the season - it's just a
question of getting my strength back.
"These are my home courts now, so I'm really looking forward to
tomorrow. I'd love to play on the glass court …"
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[5/8] Stacey
Ross (Eng) bt Joel Hinds (Eng)
11/7, 11/4, 11/4 (37m)
 "I
played really badly, it’s like I never got in the match, very
loose, I was spraying the ball all over the place, it was just
not good enough."
"Harry, my new born son, had a pretty bad night last night, and
as I had to leave my house at 4am, needless to say I didn’t have
much sleep!
"Still, Joel tried and kept the pace up a lot in the first game,
and I think that he felt the negative effect more than me, he
probably got a bit tired after that, and started to make too
many errors,
"The court is pretty dead, you don’t get any pace back, so in
the end, I stopped trying to hit the ball hard, and started
placing it more, and it worked…"
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Jon Harford
(Eng) bt James Snell (Eng) 11/2, 12/10, 11/6 (28m)
 "I
played in the qualifiers last year in Nottingham, but in a
16-draw it was ridiculously hard, the 32-draw here helps.
"He'd already come through the pre-qualifiers, so he was up for
it. I played really well in the first but he upped his game in
the second, played well and had his chances at 10/8. Once I'd
taken the second I felt quite comfortable in the third.
"I've had a good run of results recently. All quite local so I
haven't had a lot of travelling and didn't have the pressure you
sometimes get when you've travelled a long way to an event."
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[5/8] Saurav Ghosal (Ind)
bt Alan Clyne (Sco) 11/7, 11/7, 11/6 (33m)
 "He
picks up such a lot, it was a good job to get through in three..
The ball was in play a lot, it was a very flowing game, good for
the rhythm.
"I was hitting the ball well, my drops were good, but I was
still making a few errors I wasn't doing at the start of the
summer before my injury. But my leg's better now so it's just
about getting match sharp again …"
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Aaron Frankcomb (Aus) bt
Nafiizwan Adnan (Mas) 11/5, 11/3, 13/11 (55m)
 "Last
two tournaments I went out early in Birmingham and didn't play
as well as I can in Wolverhampton, so I was pretty disappointed
and keen to make amends here.
"He played well, it was tough out there and the first two game
scores don't show how close it was. I can draw some positives
out of that, like coming from 10/8 down to win the third, which
gives me some confidence. I'm looking forward to playing Saurav
tomorrow now …"
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Ritwik
Bhattacharya (Ind) bt Tom Hoevenaars (Ned) 11/9, 15/13, 11/6
(42m)
 "I
was out for three or four months, I just enjoy playing my squash
now.
"This is my third tournament back and I'm not putting any
pressure on myself, really working hard but not putting so much
importance on results.
"I'm just going to try to enjoy the tournaments and the venues,
something I've missed out on in the past, and the results will
come. I used to beat myself up too much when I played badly or
lost, which probably did me more harm than good.
"It's just great to be playing, too many people forget that, so
I'll just enjoy if for now, and that's it …"
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