25-Feb, Round ONE (Top)
Seeds progress in Chicago ...

A series of physically punishing marathon encounters dominated proceedings at the University Club of Chicago, and while none of the seeded players fell, there were narrow escapes for some ...

Egyptian World #9 Karim Abdel Gawad came within a whisker of exiting at the first hurdle in a high quality encounter with World #40 Paul Coll New Zealand that set the scene as six of eight men's matches went beyond the 60-minute mark.

Qualifier Coll played fearless and composed squash to unsettle Gawad, leading twice before he finally succumbeda after 79 minutes .

"Today was not easy at all,” said Gawad. “He came through qualification but his level today shows that he is much better than a qualifying player.

Gawad was joined in the second round by Colombian World #6 Miguel Rodriguez who looked in good form in his 76 minute victory over England's Chris Simpson.

“That was a very tough match,” said Rodriguez. “I have played a lot of times with Chris and I know how tough he is so I think I played well in first game. But from then on it just got tougher and tougher so I’m very happy to get through.

Mohamed Abouelghar, Max Lee, Marwan ElShorbagy and Tom Richards also secured hard fought opening round victories while World No.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy had a more straight forward 3-0 win over Scotland's Alan Clyne.

In the women's draw the top seeds enjoyed a straightforward start with World #1 Laura Massaro, World #2 Nicol David and World #4 Nour El Sherbini all coming through their first round matches courtesy of 3-0 wins.

Massaro is competing as the top seed in a World Series tournament for the first time.

“Coming into a World Series tournament as the top seed is a very nice feeling and this is the first time that I’ve ever experienced that so I’m excited to hopefully do well here,” said Massaro. “I won this event two years ago so I’ll be doing everything I can this week to try and replicas that.

Men's Round One (Top)        click for match reports

[1] Mohamed Elshorbagy (Egy) v [Q] Alan Clyne (Sco)
                  11-5, 11-9, 12-10 (34m)
Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) 3-2 [Q] Cesar Salazar (Mex)
                  11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 10-12, 11-6 (62m)
Max Lee (Hkg) 3-2 Gregoire Marche (Fra)
                 9-11, 3-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-3 (77m)
[5] Simon Rösner (Ger) 3-0 [Q] Adrian Waller (Eng)
                  11-5, 11-4, 11-9 (39m)

[7] Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) 3-2 [Q] Paul Coll (Nzl)
                 10-12, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7 (79m)
Marwan ElShorbagy (Egy) 3-2 [Q] Leo Au (Hkg)
                 11-7, 11-13, 11-4, 11-13, 11-9 (74m)
Tom Richards (Eng) 3-1 [Q] Raphael Kandra (Ger)
                  11-5, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7 (60m)
[4] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Col) 3-0 Chris Simpson (Eng)
                   11-4, 6-11, 11-8, 12-10 (76m)

Women's Round One (Top)     click for match reports

[1] Laura Massaro (Eng) 3-0 Line Hansen (Den)
                   11-2, 11-7, 11-5 (30m)
Victoria Lust (Eng) 3-0 Heba El Torky (Egy)
                  11-7, 11-4, 11-7 (27m)
Emily Whitlock (Eng) 3-1 [Q] Christine Nunn (Aus)
                 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 11-3 (49m)
[6] Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy) 3-0 [wc] Olivia Blatchford (Usa)
                 12-10, 11-5, 11-9 (31m) 

Delia Arnold (Mas) 3-1 Tesni Evans (Wal)
                  9-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-7 (54m)
[5] Nour El Sherbini (Egy) 3-0 [Q] Samantha Teran (Mex)
                 12-10, 11-7, 11-5 (32m)
Sarah-Jane Perry (Eng) 3-0 [Q] Deon Saffery (Wal)
                  11-6, 11-5, 13-11 (25m)
[3] Nicol David (Mas) 3-0 [Q] Fiona Moverley (Eng)
                  11-5, 11-1, 11-6 (22m)
  

Check out all the reports on Windy City Tumblr

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