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Draws & Results
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Extras: all alone
On the Blog
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Thu 30th, Day Two:
Egyptians dominant in last sixteen
as boys' seeds continue to fall ...
Today's evening session saw the last sixteen rounds in both
girls and boys draws, the girls having played their fourth round
earlier in the day.
Local favourite and top seed Dipika Pallikal opened
proceedings on the showcourt, ending the run of unseeded young
Egyptian Yathreb Adel, but after that there was no stopping the
Egyptians as they claimed six of the remaining places in the
quarter-finals.
Nouran and Heba El Torky, Salma Hany, Nour El Tayeb, Kanzy El
Defrawy and Nour El Sherbini took up those places, with
Pakistan's Maria Toor Pakay claiming the final spot.
In the boys' event top seeds Mohamed El Shorbagy and
Ivan Yuan won comfortably enough, but these two plus
Andrew Wagih, Amr Khaled Khalifa and Farhan Zaman
remain from the top eight seeds.
France's Luca Serme, Germany's Rafael Kandra and
Pakistan's Aurangzeb Mehmund - who won a nail-biting
match to put out fifth seed Alfredo Avila in five - claimed
unexpected quarter-final places. |
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Nosherwan
Khan loses to Lucas Serme |
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Zaman &
Mehmund survive
[8] Farhan Zaman (Pak) bt
[9/16] Todd Harrity (Usa)
11/8, 11/8, 8/11, 10/12, 12/10 (63m)
Aurangzeb Mehmund (Pak) bt
[5] Alfredo Avila (Mex)
11/6, 12/10, 9/11, 5/11, 13/11 (70m)
There were two marathons in the
boys' tonight - the first match on and the last match off, both
involving Pakistanis, and they both won ... just.
In the first match Farhan Mehboob squandered a two game lead,
and match ball for a 3/1 win, as Todd Herrity fought back to
force a decider.
And what a decider it was, two totally committed players, and
the crowd on court one were completely hooked on it. When Farhan
tinned an easy drop at 10/9, many of the crowd held their heads
with him.
Another match ball for Zaman, and an anti-climactic end as Todd
tinned the service return.
The final match of the day was another five-game thriller, as
speedy Mexican Alfredo Avila came from two games down against
Aurangzeb Mehmund.
The Pakistani reasserted in the fifth though, and forged into a
10-6 lead. With the crowd behind him Avila saved those four
match balls, earned one of his own but ultimately it was the
Pakistani who prevailed in a brutal 70-minute encounter.
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[1] Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egy) bt
Miled Zarazua (Mex)
11/7, 11/7, 11/6 (22m)
“It’s going well. I played better today than yesterday, that’s
what you have to do in these tournaments, so hopefully I’ll
improve again tomorrow.
“There’s pressure of course, but Anthony Ricketts gave me a few
tips on how to cope with it, and it seems to be working well so
far …”
[1] Dipika Pallikal (Ind) bt
Yathreb Adel (Egy)
11/5, 11/7, 11/5 (22m)
“It’s great to be playing in Chennai, but of course there’s a
lot of pressure and expectation.
"When I get on court I just think about the match, and I know
that if I play better I’ll win, I try to cut out all of the
distractions.
“I feel I’m getting better every match, so hopefully I can carry
on playing well until the end …”
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[4] Andrew Wagih Shoukry (Egy)
bt
[9/16] Lucas Vauzelle (Fra)
11/9, 11/6, 11/8 (31m)
“That was a good win, I played well and I like this court. He
runs well but doesn’t have too many winners, so I was able to
try out some of my shots, finding out what works in the corners
of the court, ready for the following rounds.
“I’d played him five or six times before and always won, but I
was a bit nervous at the start, with so many seeds going out
yesterday it was a bit scary, but I took some confidence during
the first game, kept it tight then started to play my game.”
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Morning Session - Girls'
third round |
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Down to the Quarters today ...
The girls face another two rounds today, just one for the
remaining boys, as both draws are whittled down to the last
eight. Stay tuned ...
Yethreb & Egyptians march on,
Sobhy stuns Gemmell ...
 Having
beaten the 9th seed yesterday Yethreb Adel continued on
her winning ways with a straight-games win over 18th seed Milou
Van Der Heijden.
"I can't believe it," said a delighted Yethreb, "I'm the
youngest one here and now I'm in the last 16!".
Yethreb is joined by six other Egyptians - Heba & Nouran El
Torky, Nour El Tayeb, Nour El Sherbiny,Kanzy
El Defrawy and Salma Hany in tonight's last sixteen,
and
Yathreb faces the daunting task of meeting top seed Dipika
Pallikal on her home turf. The top seeds cruised through her
early-morning match, playing up to her favourite's billing so
far.
That wasn't so much of a shock, but the final match of the round
saw the departure of third seed Laura Gemmell, one of the
pre-tournament favourites.
USA number two Amanda Sobhy, 16 last month, took a
two-game lead, and at 6-3 in the third it looked all over for
the Canadian favourite. Gemmell dug in to pull that back 11/9,
but Sobhy came out firing in the fourth, building another big
lead and this time there was no mistake.
 "That's
probably my best win so far, certainly the best in juniors!
"I'd never played her before, but I knew she was very
consistent. So I had to compete with that, keep the rallies
going and not hit any tins.
"It paid of, and towards the end I kept telling myself that she
must be tired too, because I was.
"I had a lead in the third, let that slip, but once I'd got a
bigger lead in the fourth there was no way I was going to blow
that one too ..."
WATCH the end of the
match
It was a good morning for the
USA, with Olivia Blatchford - expectedly - and
Elizabeth Eyre - who scored an upset win over England's
Kimberley Hay - joining Amanda in the last 16.
The Malaysian pair of Low Wee Nee and Nessrine Ariffin
both reached their seeded positions, with Canada's Samantha
Cornett and Pakistan's Maria Toor Pakay making up the
final sixteen.
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Draws & Results
Photo Galleries
Extras: all alone
On the Blog:
Dipika in the Hindu
Sobhy stuns Gemmell
Eyre gets past Hay
Pakay beats Misra |
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“The
first game was tight, I was pleased to win that, taking the last
two points gave me confidence for the rest of the match. From
the second half of the second she seemed to tire. She had a hard
game this morning, so I started to play lots of dropshots and
won points quickly.
“It
was a tough match. I couldn’t get into the first, he was hitting
nick after nick and I couldn’t calm my game down. After that I
felt better, volleyed more and my stop drops were working well.
