Liu leads the way into HK main draw

The main draws of the first PSA World Series event of the season are set after a tense day of qualifying finals at Hong Kong Football Club, which witnessed a number of marathon matches and a few upsets added to the bargain.

There was just one home winner as Liu Tsz Ling came through a nailbiting five-setter in which the last three games all went to extra points to beat Australia's Sarah Cardwell, saving three match balls before winning 12/10 in the fifth.

Her reward for qualifying for the first time - her previous main draw appearance was as a wildcard - is an all-Hong Kong match with Annie Au!

Hong Kong's only other hope, Tong Tsz-Wing, lost out in four close games to qualifying top seed Nicolette Fernandes of Guyana in an hour-long opening match.

There was a double comeback in another women's five-setter as England's Fiona Moverley recovered from two games down against Nadine Shahin, and earned herself three match balls in the decider only to see the young Egyptian take five points in a row to secure the upset win and a first World Series main draw berth.

Another Egyptian youngster, Amina Yousry, came within a whisker of causing a big upset when she led Wales' Tesni Evans two games to one, and saved three match balls to force extra points in the decider before ultimately falling just short.

Evans faces the daunting task of taking on 11-time defending champion Nicol David.

Malaysia's former world number five Low Wee Wern confirmed her return to the top echelon with a straight-games win over Millie Tomlinson, while in the all-Egyptian battle of the world junior semi-finalists of the last two years, Hania El Hammamy reversed her defeat here in May at the hands of Salma Hany to reach the main draw.

There were two upset results in the men's matches as England's Joe Lee and Germany's Raphael Kandra upset the seedings to book main draw places.

Kandra come from a game down to beat Peru's Diego Elias, taking on the two-time world junior champion at the front of the court and coming out the winner. He now meets rising Egyptian star Ali Farag.

Lee survived a brutal 98-minute encounter with Frenchman Lucas Serme - who survived the longest match of the first qualifying round.

Lee took the lead 11-1 in a game that lasted 16 minutes, and both collapsed at the end - for different reasons - as Lee took the 21-minute fifth game 11-8. He now faces Hong Kong's Max Lee.

Lee v Lee was the penultimate match drawn out of the hat, which left second qualifying seed Gregoire Marche knowing that he would be meeting his summer-long training partner, second seed and fellow Frenchman Gregory Gaultier in the main draw - he wasn't particularly amused!

The main draw begins tomorrow at 12.00 at Hong Kong Squash Centre with the top halves of both draws.