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TODAY in Hong Kong:
Tue 24th, Day Two: |
Qualifying Completion ...
Sixteen matches today with sixteen places available in the main
draws ... the winners get points, money and accommodation, the
losers get nothing, it's that brutal so expect to see some
fierce contests.
Then of course there's the matter of who the winners get drawn
against - in the women's draw the worst scenario is getting
fourth/fifth/sixth seeds Alison Waters, Omneya Abdel Kawy and
Madeline Perry, but the men face the prospect of Nick Matthew,
Ramy Ashour, Karim Darwish or Gregory Gaultier ...
Men's Finals:
Tom Richards (Eng) bt Muhd Asyraf Azan (Mas)
12/10, 9/11, 11/8, 11/8 (60m)
plays Shorbagy
Aaron Frankcomb (Aus) bt Max Lee (Hkg)
11/4, 5/11, 11/8, 6/11, 11/8 (93m)
plays Darwish
Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Nafiizwan Adnan (Mas)
11/8, 11/5, 6/11, 12/10 (73m)
plays Barker
Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) bt Nicolas Mueller (Sui)
11/9, 5/11, 12/10, 5/11, 11/9 (86m)
plays El Hindi
Amr Swelim (Ita) bt Steve Coppinger (Rsa)
12/10, 14/16, 11/3, 11/7 (63m)
plays Matthew
Farhan Mehboob (Pak) bt Alan Clyne (Sco)
7/11, 11/6, 11/8, 11/6 (40m)
plays Grant
Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) bt Siddarth Suchde (Ind)
11/5, 11/3, 11/8 (51m)
plays Gaultier
Mohammed Abbas (Egy) bt Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy)
11/7, 11/2, 11/4 (32m)
plays Ashour
You've got
a qualifier - who do you fancy ?
Women's Finals:
Emma Beddoes
(Eng) bt Ho Ka Po (Hkg)
11/3, 11/3, 11/4 (19m)
plays Perry
Siti Munirah Jusoh (Mas) bt Lauren Selby (Eng)
11/6, 11/6, 6/11, 11/8 (37m)
plays Kawy
Orla Noom (Ned) bt Carmen Lee (Hkg)
11/7, 11/2, 11/2 (22m)
plays Au
Song Sun-Mi (Kor) bt Tong Tsz-Wing (Hkg)
11/8, 11/7, 11/6 (31m)
plays Brown
Tenille Swartz (Rsa) bt Elise Ng (Hkg)
11/9, 11/4, 11/6 (30m)
plays Waters
Lisa Camilleri (Aus) v Yu Ra Choi (Kor)
11/5, 11/5, 11/1 (26m)
plays Stoehr
Kanzy El Dafrawy (Egy) bt Liu Tsz-Ling (Hkg)
11/4, 11/9, 11/8
(26m)
plays Serme
Dipika Pallikal (Ind) bt Hoe Tze Lok (Hkg)
11/2, 11/6,
11/3 (18m)
plays Atkinson |
Photo Gallery
Karim upsets Mueller, gains
fan club ...
HK One-liners #1:
Tom Richards:
The contrast in scenery fascinates me.
Ryan Cuskelly: It's just an awesome tournament.
Karim Abdel Gawad: Don't know yet, it's my first time
here.
Amr Swelim: Massages.
Mohamed Abbas: It's different ...
Aaron Frankcomb: It's great to be able to stay with a
family at the top of the Peak.
Omar Abdel Aziz: I like it because Shabana won it five
times. And the massages.
Alright for some -
Annie's straight in ... |
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Karim spoils Nicolas's day
Julian gets to
grips with Adnan
Mehboob flashes past Clyne
Swelim stops
Coppinger |
Aaron edges out Max
A little like yesterday's Clyne/Karwalski matchup, today's first
men's match on the outside courts had marathon written all over
it.
Aaron Frankcomb eventually disappointed the home crowd in
beating Max Lee in a 93-minute marathon ... Malcolm's report to
follow.
 "I
lost to him in the first round here last year, so it's pleasing
to get that win under my belt. The crowd were pretty fair, more
on his side obviously, but clapping both of us when we played
good shots.
"I was not so satisfied with my result in the Australian Open,
so I was keen to do better here."
On the showcourt qualifying top
seed Tom Richards had a stern test too, taking an hour to
get past young Malaysian Muhd Asyraf Azan in a match that got a
little tetchy in the middle.
 "It
should have been a lot easier. I got sucked into playing some of
his random shots in the middle of the match, and there were far
too many unnecessary stoppages, buta win's a win.
"It wasn't too hard physically so I should be ok for tomorrow.
There's never any easy matches, but I'd like not to play another
English guy ..."
On a day of marathon matches,
Egyptian youngster Karim Abdel Gawad - following on the
same court that Frankcomb had hogged for so long - took 86
minutes to spoil Swiss Nicolas Mueller's birthday, getting the
better of a see-saw five-setter.
"He beat me twice
before, with bad scorelines for me - one of them was on the day
before my birthday - so I've been hoping to play him again for a
while now, so that I could see how I've improved.
"He's very tough, very talented, so I'm very happy to see I've
improved and get through to the main draw ... I hope I don't
play another Egyptian ..." [sorry Karim, it's El Hindi]
Julian Illingworth took
his time as well, 73 minutes for a 3-1 win over Nafiizwan Adnan,
earning the American a match with Peter Barker.
Farhan Mehboob recovered from a game down to beat Alan
Clyne in four games, a match where I needed to increase my
camera's shutter speed, such was the pace that the pair were
flying around the court. The Pakistani now plays Adrian Grant
(note: try not to wear the same kit this time, guys).
 Ryan
Cuskelly made it a pair of Aussie qualifiers as he downed
Siddarth Suchde in three, while Amr Swelim and
Mohammed Abbas made it a trio of Egyptians.
Swelim survived an early onslaught from Steve Coppinger before
picking off the tiring South African, while Abbas - " he played
fantastic, just like he did in 1985," according to Hisham Ashour
- swept past second-seeded compatriot Omar Abdel Aziz in
straight games.
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Frankcomb outlasts Lee
Malcolm reports
Max Lee carried home hopes into the final qualifying round
against Australian Aaron Frankcomb and there was precious little
room behind court 8, a court which plays attritionally and
demands patience.
Frankcomb began sharply, took an early 4-0 lead and, playing
sensible squash, eked errors out of Lee on a regular basis to
win the first with a degree of comfort, 11/4.
There was a blood injury to Frankcomb early in the second, and
on resumption Lee built up an early lead, much less error-prone.
Frankcob, it was, who was unsettled and reduced to arguing at
some length about a decision.
It was Lee now who was working the ball well, was in control,
and encouraged by the crowd he pressed on to win the second
11/5. Anybody's guess as to what would happen in the third, with
momentum now seemingly out of the window.
Neither player could gain the dominance they had each had in the
first two games, and the play became more ordinary and rallies
protracted. A backhand return of serve into the tin by Lee gave
Frankcomb a useful, but by no meand decisive, lead at 11/8.
Lee, playing more constructively, took an early lead in the
fourth and, attacking to good effect, maintained that lead to
level the match decisively 11/6.
Neither seemed to be tiring physically, the demands of court 8
being more of concentration than movement and Frankcomb led 3-1,
which was soon 3-all, the squash being of better quality now.
Nothing in it now, 6-all and a question of nerve and resolve.
7-all, 8-7 to Frankcomb, 9-7 on another tinned return of serve,
another tin and in a thrice it was matchball to the Australian.
Two lets at 8-10 and on his second matchball Frankcomb slotted
the ball into the forehand nick, and after a brief discussion
about whether it was up the Australian had qualified. |
Swelim survives Coppinger
Malcolm reports
Steve Coppinger, the South African number oneback in action
after time in home, had no easy time against Amr Swelim, and
after a hard-fought first game went 1-0 down, 12/10 on a stroke.
There was no sign that it would continue other than being close,
and in the second each player attacked when opportunities arose.
2-all became 3-all, 4-all then 5-all, the game interesting and
watchable. Fine shots, one each, took the score to 6-all as they
sought to open up a lead. It was Coppinger who made the break, a
quality rally taking him to 9-6.
Although Swelim recovered to 8-9, Coppinger served for the game
at 10-8. A stroke and an error and it was a second tiebreak.
11-10 to Coppinger, Swelim plays a delicate forehand crosscourt
drop. A long rally, finished by Coppinger with a forehand
volley, 12-11. Another fine winner, this time by Swelim - an
overhead crosscourt volley into the nick -for 12-all.
Coppinger gains his fifth gameball at 13-2, not to be, 13-all.
An error by Coppinger gives Swelim his first gameball at 14-13,
and now 14-all as Coppinger plays a winning backhand drop. An
error by Swelim for 15-14 and a forehand kill gives Coppinger
the game 16/14, justly, for one-all fairly reflected the play,
two-nil would not have done so.
There were signs that the South African was paying for his
efforts at the beginning of the third, and Swelim raced to a 6-0
lead. Coppinger didn't chase at 8-3 and at 11/3 Swelim went 2-1
up, Coppinger's immediate prospects looking in severe doubt.
Remarkably, as Swelim failed to press home his advantage,
Coppinger led the fourth 5-2, but then Swelim seemed to realise
what was needed, levelled, went to 6-5 with a delicate backhand
drop volley, to 7-5 as Coppinger tinned, then had an easy drop
which he tinned for 8-5.
Swelim pressed ahead for 10-7, and took a fine, clean match of
considerable quality, played in the best of spirits, 3/1. |
No joy for Home hopefuls
Predictably, the women's matches had all but finished before the
men had completed half their schedule, and it wasn't a good
session for the hosts with all six Hong Kong players falling.
Given that they are mainly very young and very small, this
wasn't really surprising, but only a handful of years ago Annie
Au and Joey Chan were in the same situation, and look at them
now.
England's Emma Beddoes was first through, but Lauren
Selby couldn't join her, losing out in four competitive games to
Malaysia's Siti Munirah Jusoh.
Orla Noom wasted little time in booking her place in the
main draw, and Song Sun-Mi, who recently became the first
Korean to win a WISPA title, soon followed.
Roomates Tenille Swartz and Lisa Camilleri were
equally efficient, as were junior rivals Dipika Pallikal
and Kanzy El Dafrawy.
Swartz was delighted to have produced the only upset of the day,
putting out Elise Ng in straight games.
 "My
goal coming into this tournament was to qualify, so I'm happy to
have achieved that, and I'd like to get my ranking back up to
where I don't have to!
"I knew it wouldn't be easy though, Elise is a good player, but
we've played a few times before so I knew what to expect.
"I'm looking forward to playing Alison again, I played her last
time I was in the main draw here!"
For Australia's Camilleri
qualification has a strange similarity to the seven WISPA
tournaments she won in a row in the just-concluded Australian
Circuit:
 "Losing
in the first round here is worth 210 points, which is the same
as I got for winning each of those Tour 4 events ... but it's
always nice to get your name on a trophy!
"I was happy enough with how I played there, it was tough but
not too tough.
"I've qualified here a couple of times now, I just don't want to
play another Australian like I usually do!"
|
Beddoes leads
the way ...
Pallikal in control ...
Orla charges through ...
Song beats Tong ... |
Swartz denies Ng
Malcolm reports
Hong Hong's Elise Ng started brightly as Tenille Swartz looked
for her rhythm, which she gradually found, edging the first game
11/9.
After Ng led 2-0 ion the second the South Africam quickly
recovered to 3-all and, showing a range of shots, went quickly
to 9-3, Ng under constant pressure. Swartz won the game 11/4 to
lead 2-0.
Ng was not for giving up, however, and won a quite excellent
rally to go 1-2 in the third. Swartz, though, was still playing
varied squash with confidence and she drew away from 3-all to
9-3 and at 10-4 served for the match, winning it at the third
attempt.
She is back in action after three shoulder operations, the first
of which went wrong. She is fully fit again and may now be in a
position to fulfill the promise she was showing before her
injury problems. |
Pallikal & Ho offer lots
Malcolm reports
HoTse Lok, the waif-like winner of the recent Hong Kong Junior
Open U15 event, certainly looked up against it in her match with
Indian number two Dipika Pallikal, well-travelled and with
plenty of experience packed into her 18 years.
The severity of Pallikal's hitting was hardly going to help the
Hong Kong youngster's cause either, but even at 5-0 down in the
first, she had shown enough to suggest that she has a future.
She continued to play constructively and skilfully and without
in any way being deterred, even after losing the first 11/3.
She had the temerity to lead 4-3 and 5-4 in the second, her
choice and range of shot looking exceptional, moving well too.
Pallikal inevitably won the second 11-6, and the third 11-3.
Both girls have much to offer the game - Pallikal more
immediately at senior level, Ho at junior international level. |
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