Sun
24-Aug, Day ONE:
Qualifying Begins
Qualifying got under way
at Hong Kong Squash Centre with the usual mix of local
youngsters against seasoned pros coupled with a handful of tough
pro v pro matches.
 In
the men’s draw Rex Hedrick v Ivan Yuen looked the
toughest match on paper, and so it proved as the Aussie came
through in three tough games taking all of 67 minutes - it could
have been less had Ivan not fought back from 6-10 in the third.
“When I saw the list of qualifiers he was the one you didn’t
want,” admitted Rex, “the game opened up at the end and it was
pretty tough to finish it off.”
 Eddie
Charlton, in the last match of the day, looked as though he
would be kept on court a while too, but after a 20-minute
opening game the Englishman eased away to beat Yeung Ho Wai in
39 minutes.
Of the home players only Leo Au, younger brother of
Annie, made it through to tomorrow’s qualifying finals, all
eight of which promise to be hotly contested.
 In
the women’s matches there were a hat-trick of home winners,
youngsters Ho Tze Lok and Tin Yan Lau alongside
‘veteran’ Elise Ng returning to action to support the
tournament and trying to “put into practice some of the
things I learned doing my Master of Sports degree”.
Ho Tze Lok won the longest and toughest women’s match of the
day, taking almost an hour to see off Gu Jinyue, but the Chinese
contingent had success as Li Dongjin beat Ho Ka Po in
straight games.
 Among
the winners was Egypt’s Kanzy El Dafrawy, fresh from
leading Trinity to their first US College success in 13 years.
“I really wanted to concentrate on college squash last year,”
said Kanzy, “and winning that was great but my ranking suffered
so I’ve entered a few tournaments this summer. I didn’t feel at
my best today since I arrived late last night after a 30-hour
trip, but I’m glad to get through and looking to do well in the
tournament.”
As in the men’s draw, there will be eight tough matches tomorrow
with a place in the main draw the prize.
Men's Qualifying Round One:
Alfredo Avila (Mex) 3-1 James Huang (Tpe)
11/5, 10/12, 11/6, 11/5 (41m)
Zahed Mohamed (Egy) 3-0 Henry Leung (Hkg)
11/7, 16/14, 11/5 (38m)
Steve Finitsis (Aus) 3-0 Ho Fai Chiu (Hkg)
11/2, 11/5, 11/8 (23m)
Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy) 3-0 Hon Fung Wong (Hkg)
11/2, 11/5,11/8 (23m)
Rex Hedrick (Aus) 3-0 Ivan Yuen (Mas)
11/6, 11/6, 13/11 (67m)
Mahesh Mangaonkar (Ind) 3-0 Ling To Yu (Hkg)
11/7, 11/5, 11/7 (26m)
Matthew Karwalski (Aus) 3-0 Yuen Tsun Hei (Hkg)
9/11, 11/6, 11/6, 11/6 (27m)
Shaun le Roux (Rsa) 3-0 Ng Ka Yiu (Hkg)
11/6,
11/4, 11/2 (16m)
Leo Au (Hkg) 3-0 Chris Lo (Hkg)
11/4, 11/4, 11/5 (28m)
Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) 3-0 Law Yat Long (Hkg)
11/2, 11/8, 11/5 (14m)
Raphael Kandra (Ger) 3-0 Alex Lau (Hkg)
11/8, 11/7, 1/9 (28m)
Eddie Charlton (Eng) 3-0 Yeung Ho Wai (Hkg)
12/10, 11/5, 11/2 (39m)
More
photos in the Gallery
Women's Qualifying Round One:
Amanda Landers-Murphy (Nzl) 3-0 Tang Yan Yi (Hkg)
11/7, 11/9, 11/4 (19m)
Kanzy El-Dafrawy (Egy) 3-0 Chan Ho-Ching (Hkg)
11/7, 11/7, 11/5 (22m)
Zulhijjah Binti Azan (Mas) 3-1 Li Sum Yin (Hkg)
9/11, 11/4, 11/7, 11/6 (27m)
Milou van der Heijden (Ned) 3-0 Ming Ying Yiu (Hkg)
11/4, 11/3, 11/4 (17m)
Elise Ng (Hkg) 3-0 Chan Siu Ting (Hkg)
11/5, 11/7, 11/9 (24m)
Mariam Metwally (Egy) 3-0 Choi Uen Shan (Hkg)
11/7,
11/8, 11/7 (32m)
Ho Tze-Lok (Hkg) 3-1 Gu Jinyue (Chn)
11/6,
12/14, 11/5, 11/2 (55m)
Tin Yan Lau (Hkg) 3-0 Sum Yuet Lee (Hkg)
11/9,
11/6, 11/7 (20m)
Laura Pomportes (Fra) 3-0 Ching Hei Fung (Hkg)
11/0, 11/5, 11/2 (16m)
Li Dongjin (Chn) 3-0 Ho Ka Po (Hkg)
11/5,
13/11, 11/5 (29m)
Belen Etchechoury (Arg) 3-0 Adele Fung (Hkg)
11/6, 11/6, 11/4 (21m) |
Happy Birthday Emily !!
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