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 Malcolm's Reports

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HK One-Liners #2:

Aisling Blake: There's always somethoing new to find here, even after five visits.

Farhan Mehboob: It's a great city, I love playing here and never miss this tournament.

Alan Clyne: On first impressions it's super busy and very hot!

Julian Illingworth: It feels a bit like New York mixed with San Francisco, definitely a cool atmosphere.

Siddarth Suchde: I'm intimidated by the tall buildings ...

Harinderpal Sandhu: Chinese food.

Clinton Leeuw: First time here, enjoying everyrthing so far, for sure ...

Lisa Camilleri: The weather, I like it hot.

Orla Noom: Hot, and JW Marriott rocks.

Emma Beddoes: Love it!

Nicolas Mueller: HK's been very good to me, and I've been lucky to stay with a family on the Peak.

Kanzy El Dafrawy: Amazing country, I never expected it to be like this!

Tenille Swartz: I love it, it's nice and warm, a very interesting place that's almost as good as Cape Town!

Round One at the Hong Kong Open is one of the busiest, and best, days on the squash calendar.

Sixteen world class matches, men and women, crammed into four courts and one of the most enthusiastic crowds around.

Busy ... yes, enjoyable ... oh yes.

Especially enjoyable today for Pakistan's Farhan Mehboob and Australia's Lisa Camilleri - both qualifiers, and both through to the second round after upset wins over Adrian Grant and Isabelle Stoehr, respectively, the only upsets of the day.

A good day for the English and the Egyptians, both with a host of players through to both second rounds.

A very good day for the hosts too, with two players - Annie Au and Rebecca Chiu - through to the last sixteen, a first for them.

Results and reports below, as they happened ... read on ...

           Head2Heads and player info on the Players page

[5] Gregory Gaultier (Fra) bt [Q] Ryan Cuskelly (Aus)
                      11/8, 11/3, 11/6 (37m)
[3] Amr Shabana (Egy) bt Saurav Ghosal (Ind)
                       14/12, 3/11, 11/8, 7/11, 11/3 (53m)
[Q] Farhan Mehboob (Pak) bt [13] Adrian Grant (Eng)
                       11/9, 13/11, 11/9 (44m)
[15] Alister Walker (Eng) bt Hisham Ashour (Egy)
                       11/6, 9/11, 11/6, 11/6 (50m)
[12] Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned) bt Omar Mosaad (Egy)
                       13/11, 11/9, 3/11, 11/4 (76m)
[1] Nick Matthew (Eng) bt [Q] Amr Swelim (Ita)
                       11/3, 11/9, 11/6 (29m)
[8] Peter Barker (Eng) bt [Q] Julian Illingworth (Usa)
                       11/4, 11/8, 11/3 (48m)
[9] Daryl Selby (Eng) bt Azlan Iskandar (Mas)
                       11/8,11/6, 11/9 (63m)
[7] Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Dick Lau (Hkg)
                      11/7, 11/2, 11/7 (34m)
[10] David Palmer (Aus) bt Olli Tuominen (Tin)
                      11/2, 11/5, 11/4 (35m)
[16] Cameron Pilley (Aus) bt Ong Beng Hee (Mas)
                      11/6, 11/7, 14/12 (62m)
[11] Wael El Hindi (Egy) bt [Q] Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy)
                      11/5, 9/11, 11/3, 11/7 (65m)
[6] James Willstrop (Eng) bt Aamir Atlas Khan (Pak)
                    11/2, 11/1, 11/3 (23m)
[4] Karim Darwish (Egy) bt [Q] Aaron Frankcomb (Aus)
                    11/6, 11/3, 11/3 (28m)
[14] Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egy) bt [Q] Tom Richards (Eng)
                    11/8, 11/8, 12/10 (45m)
[2] Ramy Ashour (Egy) bt [Q] Mohammed Abbas (Egy)
                    11/9, 11/3, 11/7 (28m)

Malcolm's Round One Reports

[12] Vanessa Atkinson (Ned) bt [Q] Dipika Pallikal (Ind)
                  11/9, 11/7, 6/11, 11/9 (34m)
[5] Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy) bt [Q] Siti Munirah Jusoh (Mas)
                  11/5, 11/4, 11/6 (17m)
[2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) bt Latasha Khan (Usa)
                   11/2, 11/1, 8/11, 11/7 (29m)
[13] Annie Au (Hkg) bt [Q] Orla Noom (Ned)
                   11/6, 11/9, 11/5 (28m)
[15] Donna Urquhart (Aus) bt Line Hansen (Den)
                   11/9, 11/7, 11/7 (28m)
[8] Kasey Brown (Aus) v [Q] Song Sun-Mi (Kor)
                   11/6, 11/2, 11/2 (27m)
[11] Samantha Teran (Mex) bt Aisling Blake (Irl)
                    11/5, 11/4, 8/11, 12/10 (61m)
[4] Alison Waters (Eng) bt [Q] Tenille Swartz (Rsa)
                    11/4, 11/4, 11/7 (24m)
[6] Madeline Perry (Irl) bt [Q] Emma Beddoes (Eng)
                    11/7, 9/11, 11/8, 11/7 (48m)
[10] Engy Kheirallah (Egy) bt Joshna Chinappa (Ind)
                   9/11, 11/6, 11/4, 12/10 (36m)
[16] Rebecca Chiu (Hkg) bt Tania Bailey (Eng)
                     7/11, 11/6, 11/8, 12/10 (50m)
[1] Nicol David (Mas) bt Sarah Kippax (Eng)
                    11/1, 11/5, 11/4 (22m)
[Q] Lisa Camilleri (Aus) bt [14] Isabelle Stoehr (Fra)
                    8/11, 11/5, 11/4, 7/11, 11/4 (39m)
[7] Laura Massaro (Eng) bt Joey Chan (Hkg)
                    11/8, 11/7, 6/11, 11/8 (41m)
[9] Camille Serme (Fra) bt [Q] Kanzy El Dafrawy (Egy)
                   11/7, 12/10, 11/5 (35m)
[3] Rachael Grinham (Aus) bt Delia Arnold (Mas)
                    11/3, 11/5, 11/3 (25m)

Malcolm's Round One Reports

No sweat for Greg

Three-time finalist Gregory Gaultier eased into the second round with a straight games win over qualifier Ryan Cuskelly. It looked comfortable enough for the Frenchman, who was on top for most of the match and recovered well after finding himself 4-1 down in the third.

 "I started to accelerate and raise the pace in the second, I felt good and I'm pretty confident in my game," said the Frenchman afterwards.

"As I did in Australia, I hope to be able to raise my game every match."

Shabana Survives

That's 26 wins in a row - and counting - for Amr Shabana, but the world champion was given a fright by speedy Indian Saurav Ghosal. It ended up being a good job that the defending champion sneaked the first game on extra points, as Saurav came out flying in the second, then did the same in the fourth having gone 2-1 down.

It was all Shabana in the decider though. "That's what it's about, a win's a win," said a relieved Egyptian afterwards.

"He stepped up and kept in front of me in the second, he had a game plan and stuck to it. I lost my way in the fourth, and the fifth is always anyone's, you just hope to get a few points ahead at the start and hang on to it.

"I managed to do that, and he lost his way a bit at the end."

Farhan puts Grant out

Farhan Mehboob has improved with every match so far, and played one of the games of his life to put out 13th seed Adrian Grant.

The Pakistani sneaked the first two, 11/9, 13/11, and looked to be heading to victory when he went 7-4 up in the third. Grant, noted for his ability in the clutch, pulled back to 7-all, then at 9-8 Farhan got a dead nick on the back wall to reach matchball.

At the end of a lengthy rally Grant put the ball down the middle, thought he'd cleared in time but the referees disagreed, stroke and match to Mehboob.

"I was prepared for it," said a delighted winner afterwards. "We played in Saudi last year, he won 3/1 but it was a very good game, I knew I had to focus and play well on each point this time.

"He played too much attacking for me in the second, but I still managed to win that one, and I played my best squash in the third.

"It's great to reach the second round, having had to qualify, and I'm really looking forward to playing Greg now."

Walker nullifies Ashour magic

"It's scary playing him," said a relieved Alister Walker after seeing off Hisham Ashour, elder brother of Ramy.

The Egyptian certainly has all the shots, and put them to good use, particularly in the game he won, the second.

"My length wasn't quite right in that one," said Walker, "and he must have hit at least seven outright winners. Camps [David Campion] was great in between games though, keeping me on the straight and narrow. It's a question of trying to keep it deep, lengthen the rallies and he's bound to go for something ..."

Willstrop at ease as English progress

James Willstrop was one of five English players to go through, cantering home against a clearly under-par Aamir Atlas Khan.

Khan explained that two weeks ago he was suffering from Chicken Pox, and although he was now recovered he knew that he was far from match fitness. "It makes you very weak," he said, "but I wanted to come and play, partly to avoid a penalty, but also because I like it here so much. I'll go back and train for the British Grand Prix now.

Nick Matthew, Peter Barker and Daryl Selby completed the quintet, all winning in straight games.

World number one Matthew was happy with his performance against Amr Swelim, happy to get a runout on the Centre Court, "I haven't played on it for two years," he explained, "so it was good to get on there first match. He pushed me hard in the second, so it was a good opening match. 

Matthew showed he wasn't completely infallible though, serving out on the first point of that second game, and standing in disbelief. "I haven't done that for a very long time," he mused.
 
Thierry dashed HK hopes again

There was to be no fairy story for wildcard Dick Lau - just as last year he came up against former champion Thierry Lincou, and just as last year he lost, but they put on a bit of a show for the crowd, and everyone enjoyed it.

"It's always nice to draw the wildcard, better than having a really tough match to start with," said the Frenchman. "I enjoyed myself, we had a bit of fun and tried to entertain the crowd, but I can look forward to the next match now."

"It's not really the type of match you want when it's your first for quite a while," said Atkinson. "She's very hard to read and was catching me out with a lot of her boasts, I had to try to make sure I kept the ball deep, she was pouncing on anything short.

"I wanted a match where you hit a lot of balls to get into the tournament, but actually Jenny takes it in short a lot, so maybe that will have sharpened me up if I end up playing her ..."

Omneya warms up

Fifth seed Omneya Abdel Kawy was quick to follow, easing past qualifier Siti Munirah Jusoh in straight games.

"I was a bit worried as I only arrived her two days ago and wasn't sure if I'd suffer with jetlag," she admitted afterwards. "So I'm glad to get through in three games."

"I felt quite good, this court is sometimes bouncy and sometimes dead, it was a bit dead today which suited my game. Hopefully I can improve again tomorrow ..."

Annie keeps
HK flag flying

The crowd and the press were out in their droves to see Hong Kong's Annie Au, seeded 13, take on Orla Noom on the Centre Court.

They weren't disappointed as the HK number one got the better of the Dutchwoman in three games, all competitive but Annie never really looked in danger of losing any of them.

I had a slow start today and took quite a long to get into the match, may be I did not have sufficient warm up," confessed Annie.

"It is going to be tough tomorrow as Kawy is an all-rounder and her strokes come with a lot of variation. I beat her at the Singapore Masters last month, the first time I upset a top 10 player and played probably my best squash."

"But will have to forget that result and raise my game if want to beat her again ..."
 
Rebecca makes it two

The home crowd were doubly delighted when Rebecca Chiu beat former world number four Tania Bailey to join Annie in the last sixteen, the first time the hosts have had more than one player at that stage.

The Englishwoman took the first, but Chiu, who know the Centre Court here like the back of her hand, started chopping in dropshots and volleydrops to great effect as she took the next two games.

The fourth was a tense, let-filled affair. Bailey got to game ball first, 10-9, but couldn't convert as Chiu took the next three points to bring the crowd to its feet. (video of closing stages).

"The support from the crowd was great, it gave me lots of energy," said a delighted winner.

"After the first my coach told me I needed to volley more, to make her do more work, and it paid off.

"I've been in the same spot for the last three years, so I guess I'll have my annual match with Nicol [David] next. I beat her once in the Asian Games, but otherwise the record doesn't look very good for me!"

Five-time champion David followed Chiu on the centre court and eased through against England's Sarah Kippax, looking in pretty good form she was, too.

There was to be no HK hat-trick though, as Joey Chan went down fighting, 1-3 against Laura Massaro.

Lisa shocks Isa

Qualifier Lisa Camilleri created the shock of the women's event so far when she ousted France's 14th seed Isabelle Stoehr in a tense five-game battle. Camilleri, winner of seven smaller WISPA events in a row earlier this year, was delighted with the win:

"I'd never played her before, but I did a bit of training with her in Melbourne last week. She has such good racket skills, if I left anything short I was in trouble, but when I managed to get my length working I felt more in control.

"I haven't even looked to see who I play next - this is definitely my best win ever ... sweet!"

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