15-Nov, Day Four: Round One, Part Two
Leo takes out defending champion Ramy
on a great day for Hong Kong ...

Hong Kong's Leo Au produced the win of his life as he beat defending champion Ramy Ashour in five games in front of a packed and noisy crowd at Hong Kong Squash Centre. Ashour took the lead but Leo took the next two and had a match ball in the fourth before the Egyptian forced a decider.

The wildcard entry led 4-0 in the fifth and although Ashour levelled, he quickly fell away at the end as Leo made the second round for the first time in twelve consecutive appearances at the Hong Kong Open.

"I feel amazing because I didn’t expect much before the match," said Leo.

"When I lost that match ball, I thought I had lost the match, so I’m happy to win in front of my home crowd and especially to reach the second round for the first time."

There were two more home winners in the women's event as Leo's sister Annie beat compatriot Tong Tsz-Wing in straight games, and Joey Chan upset England's Emily Whitlock to make it a Hong Kong hat-trick.

Leo now meets another Egyptian in fourth seed Ali Farag, who won a quickfire four game encounter with English qualifier Tom Richards. One English qualifier did progress though as Declan James beat in-form Indian Saurav Ghosal in straight games to set up a meeting with Fares Dessouky.

The other matches went to seeding with Karim Abdel Gawad and Tarek Momen making in four Egyptians in the bottom half of the draw, where they'll meet Aussie pair of Cameron Pilley and Ryan Cuskelly.

Annie will be up against 11-time Hong Kong champion Nicol David who, after losing in last year's semi-final restarted her Hong Kong win count with a four-game win over Canadian qualifier Danielle Letourneau.

Chan will meet France's third seed Camille Serme, who was ruthless in despatching Malaysia's Rachel Arnold.

The bottom quarter of the draw will see Sarah-Jane Perry face Joelle King (who had a surprise visit from Dame Susan Devoy), both coming through tough encounters today against Coline Aumard and Nadine Shahin, while Egyptian pair Raneem El Welily and Nour El Tayeb will meet in a replay of their U.S. Open final, both enjoying contrasting three-nil wins today.

WHAT THEY SAID, Day Four

14-Nov, Day Three: Round One, Part One at HKSC
 
Max makes Elshorbagy work for it as Abouelghar downs Willstrop, Lobban and Serme qualify for last sixteen.

The first session of Round One play at Hong Kong Squash Centre started with four relatively straightforward wins for the women's seeded players - Tesni Evans, Olivia Blatchford, Alison Waters and Laura Massaro all winning in straight games on or around the half hour mark - Massaro avoiding a repeat of last year's five-game nailbiter against teenage Egyptian qualifier Hania El Hammamy.

There was an upset in the the first set of men's matches though, as Scottish qualifier Greg Lobban beat Zahed Mohamed in four games.

Top seed Gregory Gaultier was a straight game winner over compatriot Gregoire Marche, while Marwan Elshorbagy and Paul Coll - in his first appearance in HK - both came from a game down to secure second round places.

Day Three What They Said

The evening's women's matches all went to form, if not quite to seeding. Egyptians top seed Nour El Sherbini and defending champion Nouran Gohar eased through to the last sixteen.

Sherbini now faces Donna Urquhart, who kept up her winning record against 15th seed Victoria Lust, while Gohar meets Joshna Chinappa, who needed five games to see off Canadian qualifier Hollie Naughton.

The biggest upset of the day came in the opening evening men's match as Mohamed Abouelghar beat sixth seed and former HK champion James Willstrop in straight games. Abouelghar now meets Germany's Simon Rosner, who came through a tough four game encounter with Mathieu Castagnet.

Another Egyptian win came as Mohamed Elshorbagy joined younger brother Marwan in the last sixteen, but home favourite Max Lee made the third seeded two-time HK champion work to the very end for his win.

Twice Elshorbagy led and twice Max levelled, roared on by the packed HKFC crowd. But the effort in the fourth told as Elshorbagy pulled away, Max left cramping on the floor at the end of the match unable to repeat his heroics of last year.