|
|
|
Wed 7th Nov, Day THREE, Round One: |
Barrington the only upset
as Chiu flies HK flag alone ...
The first player into the second round was South Africa's Tenille
Swartz. Having qualified last night Tenille was handed a bye
when fourth seed Tania Bailey withdrew this morning.
Apparently she had an adductor muscle problem that arose in Qatar,
and after a hit this morning was advised by her physio not to
compete.
A second casualty was Jonathan Kemp, still suffering from a rib
injury he picked up in Qatar, allowing Karim Darwish an
unopposed passage into the last sixteen.
Elsewhere on a hectic opening day for the main draw, Joey
Barrington created the day's only seeding upset with a 3/1 win
over 15th seed Cameron Pilley, although Ritwik
Bhattacharya came mighty close, the Indian number two was 2/1
and 8-all with Adrian Grant, but the Englishman held firm to
reach the second round.
All but one of the local players fell today as Lee Beachill
ended the run of HK teenage sensation Max Lee and Nick
Matthew thwarted National Champion Dick Lau, both in
straight games.
On the women's side Rebecca Chiu maintained her unbeaten
record against young challenger Annie Au in a closely-fought
four-game contest, while Elise Ng and Christina Mak failed to make
further progress as all 15 seeds in action today won.
Qualifier Chris Ryder's third meeting with a top-four player
in successive tournaments ended in predictable defeat against second
seed Gregory Gaultier, "but at least the scoreline was
respectable and I'm learning all the time from these matches," mused
the world university champion ...
|
|
|
Mens Round One
[1] Amr Shabana (Egy) bt Alister Walker (Eng) 11/9, 11/6, 11/4 (35m)
[12] Ong Beng Hee (Mas) bt [Q] Dylan Bennett (Ned) 11/7, 8/11, 11/9,
11/3 (52m)
[8] Wael El Hindi (Egy) bt Renan Lavigne (Fra)
7/11, 11/4, 11/8,
11/6 (60m)
Joey Barrington (Eng) bt [15] Cameron Pilley (Aus)
11/6, 4/11, 11/6,
11/8 (68m)
[3] David Palmer (Aus) bt [Q] Saurav Ghosal (Ind)
11/4, 11/3, 11/4
(27m)
[13] Borja Golan (Esp) bt Stacey Ross (Eng) 11/5, 11/8, 11/1
(40m)
[5] Karim Darwish (Egy) bt Jonathan Kemp (Eng)
w/o
[10] Peter Barker (Eng) bt [Q] Aaron Frankcomb (Aus) 11/3, 11/8,
11/4 (39m)
[16] Hisham Ashour (Egy) bt [Q] Mark Krajcsak (Hun)
9/11, 11/7, 11/6, 11/2 (40m)
[7] Lee Beachill (Eng) bt [Q] Max Lee (Hkg)
11/2, 13/11, 11/7 (42m)
[11] Azlan Iskandar (Mas) bt [Q] Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy) 11/4, 11/6, 11/5 (34m)
[4] Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Bradley Ball (Eng) 11/5, 11/8, 11/3
(33m)
[14] Adrian Grant (Eng) bt [Q] Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) 11/6, 6/11, 9/11,
11/8, 11/5 (53m)
[6] Nick Matthew (Eng) bt Dick Lau (Hkg) 11/5, 11/7, 11/3
(32m)
[9] Stewart Boswell (Aus) bt Kashif Shuja (Nzl) 11/8, 11/7, 11/8
(29m)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (Fra) bt [Q] Chris Ryder (Eng) 11/7, 11/8, 11/8 (31m)
Womens Round One:
[1] Nicol David (Mas) bt Tricia Chuah (Mas)
9/4, 9/0, 9/0
(19m)
[16] Annelize Naude (Ned) bt [Q] Christina Mak (Hkg)
4/9, 9/0, 10/9, 9/5 (58m)
[8] Vanessa Atkinson (Ned) bt Elise Ng (Hkg) 9/3,
9/5, 9/1 (25m)
[11] Jenny Duncalf
(Eng) bt [Q] Louise Crome (Nzl) 9/0,
9/5, 9/0 (30m)
[3] Rachael Grinham (Aus) bt Lauren Briggs (Eng)
9/4, 9/2, 9/1 (32m)
[9] Laura Lengthorn-Massaro (Eng) v Raneem El Weleily (Egy)
9/4, 9/4, 9/5 (42m)
[6] Vicky Botwright (Eng) bt [Q] Peta Hughes (Aus) 9/2, 9/7, 5/9, 9/1 (36m)
[13] Rebecca Chiu
(Hkg) bt Annie Au (Hkg)
9/2, 9/10, 10/8, 9/4
(42m)
[10] Shelley Kitchen (Nzl) bt Dominique Lloyd-Walter (Eng)
9/3, 9/3, 9/0 (42m)
[5] Natalie Grainger (Usa) bt Jaclyn Hawkes (Nzl)
9/5, 9/1, 9/5 (31m)
[13] Alison Waters (Eng) bt Sharon Wee (Mas)
9/3, 9/1, 9/2 (23m)
[Q] Tenille Swartz (Rsa) bt [4] Tania Bailey (Eng)
w/o
[15] Kasey Brown (Aus) bt [Q] Amelia Pittock (Aus) 9/5, 9/2, 9/1 (35m)
[7] Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy) bt [Q] Sarah Kippax (Eng) 9/7, 9/3, 9/3 (39m)
[14] Engy Kheirallah (Egy) bt [Q] Manuela Manetta (Ita) 9/2, 9/10, 9/3, 9/0 (45m)
[2] Natalie Grinham (Aus) bt [Q] Suzie Pierrepont (Eng) 9/2, 9/3, 9/2 (20m) |
 |
|
[13]
Rebecca Chiu
(Hkg) bt Annie Au (Hkg)
9/2, 9/10, 10/8, 9/4
(42m)
Rebecca takes HK honours
 Thee
local media were out in force for the second women's match on the
showcourt as Hong Kong's top senior player faced the challenge of
the top junior.
Rebecca Chiu started out imposing her authority on the young Annie
Au, taking the first game with ease. But Annie started to find her
gamer, and Rebecca started finding those lovely drops and volley
drops hard to handle. Annie led 7/2 and 8/5 in the second, and
although Rebecca came back to earn a game ball, it was the youngster
who took the game to level.
The third was almost the same Annie's shotmaking took her to 6/1
and 8/3, but this time Rebecca's comeback succeeded as she regained
the lead.
That seemed to take the wind out of Annie's sails, and the senior
player controlled the fourth and final game to keep her unbeaten
record against her young pretender
 |
"I knew it was going to be tough, as last time I played her in the
Hong Kong championships I only just won 3/2, so in fact I did better
this time around! The youngsters are catching up quick though, she
really does get better each time I play her.
"I nearly came back in the second, but I was a bit lucky to get back
from so far down in the third if she had taken that it would have
given her a lot of confidence.
"The fourth was quite comfortable. As a junior and a part-time
player you can't expect her fitness level to be up to that of a
professional player, which is just as well really
"
 |
|
[1]
Amr Shabana (Egy)
bt Alister Walker (Eng)
11/9, 11/6, 11/4
 "It
wasn't an easy first round, he's one you definitely don't want to
play, I always seem to get tough draws these days.
"Winning the first game made a difference. He was playing well,
putting his shots in short very well, and I was struggling to adjust
to the court. Winning that game gave me some confidence and I was
playing well in the end, and I feel fine physically even after so
many matches recently.
"This court is a little weird at first, with the colours and the
solid side wall, but it's a good court, like all the permanent glass
ones, they're always better than the moveable ones. You have to be
moving well on it, which I was, so I like it!"
 |
 |
|
[13]
Alison Waters (Eng)
bt Sharon Wee (Mas)
9/3, 9/1, 9/2 (23m)
[6] Vicky Botwright (Eng) bt [Q] Peta Hughes (Aus)
9/2, 9/7, 5/9, 9/1 (36m)
English girls progress
One English woman fell without hitting a ball, but the first two
matches of the day saw two progress to the second round.
Alison Waters was a comfortable straight-games winner over
Sharon Wee setting up a match against Tenille Swartz and for a
while Vicky Botwright's match against Peta Hughes looked just
as comfortable. Leading 9/2, 8/2 Botwright started finding the tin,
squeezed home in the second but dropped the third as the Australian
took heart. Vicky regrouped for the fourth though, taking it 9/1.
It became an English hat-trick in the first set of matches as
Peter Barker overcame qualifier Aaron Frankcomb in three.
"It's nice to have a
match at last, you really have to get used to these courts. I
thought I played quite well, I got in front and attacked, and put it
in short when I had her at the back.
"It's Tenille now, I've never played her before, I just feel sorry
for Tan we didn't know she had a problem until she pulled out this
morning."
 "These
things happen! I started off ok but then my length was halfcourt.
Peta has a good backhand and she was hitting some good low winners
and I was trying to force it too much, going too short too soon.
"I started trying to hit straighter in the fourth, and she started
making a few errors. You've got to watch out for these young
whippersnappers though, there a lot of them coming through at the
moment
"
 |
 |
|
[10]
Shelley Kitchen (Nzl) bt Dominique Lloyd-Walter (Eng)
9/3, 9/3, 9/0 (42m)
 "That
was one of those matches where the scoreline doesn't do justice to
how hard the match was. Every rally was tough, and the first half of
the second game was especially hard, I somehow managed to come out
of that a few points ahead.
"She played much better than when we met last week in Qatar, I think
the faster courts here suit her game more.
"I'm pleased with my performance here, and it's good to get a
rematch with Grainger, after what happened last time we met
[in
Madrid]"
 |
[5]
Natalie Grainger (Usa) bt Jaclyn Hawkes (Nzl)
9/5, 9/1, 9/5 (31m)
 "That
was a perfect workout to start with. She always battles hard, and if
you give her room in the middle she hits some really tight shots,
glued to the wall.
"I had to really battle towards the end, trying to keep the points
down, but it's a good start.
"Tania was in my quarter, so that opens the draw up a bit, but I
feel for her, she's had some bad luck there. Whoever gets through
we'll give it a good go, one at a time
"
 |
 "It's
the first time I've played him in singles, at least! I think that
was a good, solid performance, I didn't want to get sucked into a
long match, he's the type of player that will get more and more
confidence if you let him in too much.
"So I'm happy with this as a good, solid start
"
David Palmer |
[3]
David Palmer (Aus) bt
[Q] Saurav Ghosal (Ind)
11/4, 11/3, 11/4
(27m)
 |
 |
[1]
Nicol David (Mas) bt
Tricia Chuah (Mas) 9/4, 9/0, 9/0
(19m)
 "It's
always nice to win your first round in a really big event, I felt I
was moving well and hitting the ball well so that's a good sign.
"All the girls in the main draw play well, so you just have to bring
your game up every time, you can't afford to let up at any time, but
I'm happy with that
"
 |
|
[7]
Lee Beachill (Eng) bt [Q] Max Lee (Hkg)
11/2, 13/11, 11/7 (42m)
 "It's
great for a youngster to come through qualifying like that, he's a
good player, he moves well and has some good shots.
"He wasn't moving off the ball too well today, and he was bumping into me
quite a bit, but I've played the best in the world at that though,
so I've learned to cope.
"I relaxed a bit in the second when I was 6/2 up, he hit a couple of
good shots and the crowd got behind him.
"I wouldn't have been too
concerned if I'd lost that one, but getting through pressure moments
like that is good preparation for the next match when situations like
that are bound to come."
 |
[6]
Nick Matthew (Eng)
bt Dick Lau (Hkg)
11/5, 11/7, 11/3 (32m)
 "That
felt great, I really enjoyed it. It's the first time I've played a
top ten player, and you can see the difference in the pace, and his
accuracy is so good.
"Every time he's in front of me, and I have to step up to the ball
rather than letting it come to me like I can with the regular
players. I learned a lot from that
"I'll be in Bermuda for the World Open and then India for the World
Teams, so hopefully I'll get the chance to play some more top
players and learn some more things
"
 |
|
[2]
Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
bt
[Q] Chris Ryder (Eng) 11/7, 11/8, 11/8 (31m)
 "Well
at least the scoreline looks respectable this time, and I didn't
feel overpowered, but he was better at the basics today and that's
all he needed to do really
"But it's another good experience, I'm learning a lot from playing
these top guys.
"Having a few matches on a glass court will help too, I'm playing
Alex Gough in the first round in Santiago in a couple of weeks,
where they have a glass court in a shopping mall."
 |
 |
|
[14] Engy Kheirallah
(Egy) bt
[Q] Manuela Manetta (Ita)
9/2, 9/10, 9/3, 9/0 (45m)
 |
 "We
played once before, I lost 3/2 so I knew it could be a close match.
I made a bad start, I must have hit five tins in the first game.
"Then I got back into it by being more patient, but I'm too up and
down at the moment, I play good then I play bad, just like that.
"I started making errors and rushing things again while she just
stayed patient, was consistent, and took advantage of it.
"I'm playing the Carol Weymuller in New York next. I'll go home for
some rest and hope to play at my best there
"
 |
|
 "Jenny
was just too good today, she makes you work really hard with the
delay she puts on her shots, so you're always having to work hard to
get to the ball and taking it late too often.
"In the second I pulled up, started taking the ball on the volley
with some success, but her strength and experience was too good in
the end.
"We were playing on my favourite court, but it was much hotter than
in previous matches I've played on there so I was having difficulty
adjusting to that.
"This is my sixth tournament in seven weeks, so I'm looking forward
to a bit of time off now, and being able to work on a few things
"
 |
[11]
Jenny Duncalf
(Eng) bt
[Q] Louise Crome (Nzl) 9/0, 9/5, 9/0
(30m)
 |
|
|
