Round One - top half:

Daryl Selby (Eng) 3-0 [Q] Gregoire Marche (Fra)
                 11/6, 11/6, 11/3 (40m)
Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned) 3-0 [Q] Olli Tuominen (Fin)
                 11/3, 14/12, 11/8 (51m)
[8] Tarek Momen (Egy) 3-0 [Q] Kristian Frost (Den)
                  11/2, 11/3, 10/3 rtd (20m)
Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) 3-2 [Q] Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy)
            8/11, 11/4, 6/11, 11/7, 11/9 (57m)

[2] James Willstrop (Eng) 3-0 Abdulla Al Tamimi (Qat)
           11/7, 11/9, 11/3 (27m)
[4] Karim Darwish (Egy) 3-1 Adrian Grant (Eng)
           11/6, 11/9, 10/12, 11/8 (64m)
[5] Mohamed Elshorbagy (Egy) 3-2 Chris Simpson (Eng)
            7/11, 8/11, 11/7, 11/7, 11/6 (67m)
Omar Mosaad (Egy) 3-0 Ong Beng Hee (Mas)
           11/6, 11/9, 11/5 (31m) 

First up, England’s Daryl Selby, fresh from making the World quarters in Manchester, looked in good shape as he despatched French qualifier Gregoire Marche in straight games.

“I played well today,” said Selby, “I'm riding on momentum and confidence at the moment. I had a good game plan and I’m happy to get through 3/0 against one of those young hungry and upcoming players.”

Although Olli Tuominen had to qualify, the Finn had beaten Laurens Jan Anjema in all three of their previous PSA meetings, but today it was the turn of the big Dutchman to get his first. LJ eased through the first game before taking the next two narrowly, much to his own delight.

“In my head we were 50/50,” admitted Anjema, “but it’s still a big win, he is so hard to beat.”

Egypt’s Tarek Momen ended the run of European winners as he eased past a less than fully fit Kristian Frost in three games Kristian explains

Then Karim Abdel Gawad ended the run of qualifier compatriot Mohamed Abouelghar, twice coming from behind to win in five games.

“I knew it was going to be a very tough draw,” said Gawad, I switch off when I was ahead in the last two games and he cam back both times! I’m lucky in the end he made two errors.”

“I'm disappointed with the match, but not with my tournament,” said Abouelghar, “there is a lot of positive to take from it.”

England’s James Willstrop, champion here in 2005 and elevated to second seed after the withdrawal of Ramy Ashour, met local favourite Abdulla Al Tamimi in front of a big crowd.

“It’s fantastic to see Qatar producing such a good quality player,” said Willstrop, “he is a great prospect for Qatar and for Squash.”

Willstrop was in control in the first, but had to pull back a mid-game deficit to to the second - in which Abdulla played very well - before zipping through the third.

Karim Darwish has been champion here too, in 2010, and the fourth-seeded Egyptian’s bid for a second title is still on course after a tough four-game win over England’s Adrian Grant that took just over the hour.

“I think I played really well for the first two games, I always play well on this court,” said Darwish, ”but I was feeling very tense at from the third game on, no real explanation.”

The nearest we came to a seeding upset was Chris Simpson was two games and 5-3 up against fifth seed Mohamed Elshorbagy, who contested the World final here less than a year ago. But the Egyptian fought back to level, and fought back again from 0-3 and 3-5 in the decider to complete the comeback.

In the final match of the day Omar Mosaad made it five out of eight for Egypt as he beat Ong Beng Hee in straight games. Mosaad controlled most of the match, but Ong threatened to come back in the second, levelling at 9-all from 1-9 down before Mosaad took the necessary points before easing through the third.

Of the five Egyptian winners four of them are in the same section of the draw, so an Egyptian semi-finalist is already guaranteed !

Monday sees the completion of the first round with the bottom half of the draw (it looks upside down after the withdrawal through injury of Ramy Ashour).

Geoff Hunt with Tamimi

The Draw

Lots of photos in the Gallery