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23-Feb, Day ONE:
Qualifying round one
It was the first day of play at
the University Club of Chicago, with 16 men's and 12 women's
qualifying round one matches starting at noon.
The main upset came in one of the first matches with the
emotional victory of Olli Pett who after
several career threatening injuries, losing his dad and a few
weeks ago his mum to cancer and stopping his career to look
after her, was able to beat much higher ranked Nasir Iqbal,
eighth seed in qualifying, in five games.
"It was so much more than a
squash match", said a very emotional Olli, "today, I felt I was
fighting for my life...
His friend Jon Geekie, who has been there throughout the ordeal
later
lost out 3/0 to Paul Coll was pretty close
to tears himself at his friend's big win.
Pett, who now meets German
Raphael Kandra, is joined in the qualifying finals by
fellow Englishmen Adrian Waller,
Joe Lee - who beat seventh seed Nafiizwan Adnan in three
long games - and
Declan James.
Scotland's top two
Alan Clyne and Greg Lobban both won - Clyne
beating Chicago club pro John Rooney - and now play each other
for a place in the main draw.
The other
big match was an impressive win for Hong Kong's
Tsz Fung Yip, who managed to beat Frenchman Lucas
Serme 11/9 in the fifth in a very intense up and down
encounter. He now meets countryman
Leo Au.
There were a number of quick matchers, and no upsets, in the
women's matches, but a disputed and intense five setter between
Hania Elhammamy, the
15-year-old Egyptian ranked #56 in the world, and 21-year-old Sachika Ingale from India
ranked #86 -
it went all the way ...
More reports on Tumblr :
(which you can open in a new window for a better view)
They said:
Wayne Smith,
ref, to Abdulla after he hits himself and slapped his own
face ...
"Stop that, Mr Tamimi, no more self abuse ..."
Awwwwhhhh ... isn't that nice, didn't want the boy to hurt
himself ...
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