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• TODAY |
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TODAY at the World Open
Daily reports
from Bermuda ... |
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Fri 23rd Nov - Qualifying Day One: |
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Qualifying Round One:
Daily News Issue #1
Alister
Walker (Eng)
bye
Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Col) bt Nick Kyme (Ber)
11/5, 11/8, 11/3 (24m)
Eric Galvez (Mex) bt Melrindo Caines (Ber)
11/0, 11/2, 11/5 (15m)
Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) bt Matthew Giuffre (Can)
12/10, 11/9, 11/5 (48m)
Bradley Ball (Eng) bt Chris Gordon (Usa)
11/5, 11/4, 11/5 (28m)
Yasser El Halaby (Egy) bt Morten Sorensen (Den)
11/9, 11/5, 7/11, 11/9 (42m)
Scott Arnold (Aus) bt Liam Kenny (Irl)
11/4, 11/8, 11/8 (41m)
Shawn Delierre (Can) bt Jesse Engelbrecht (Rsa)
11/8, 11/8, 10/12, 7/11, 11/9 (69m)
Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Patrick Foster (Irl)
11/6, 11/4, 11/8 (35m)
Omar Elborolossy (Egy) bt Julien Balbo (Fra)
11/6, 11/5, 8/11, 11/7 (62m)
Kashif Shuja (Nzl) bt Chase Toogood (Ber)
11/6, 11/6, 11/3 (24m)
Jonathan Kemp (Eng) bye
Saurav Ghosal (Ind) bt Dick Lau (Hkg)
11/4, 11/3, 11/5 (24m)
Omar Mosaad (Egy) bt Joe Chapman (Bvi)
11/2, 11/5, 11/7 (18m)
Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy) bt Bernardo Samper (Col)
11/4, 11/9, 11/9 (31m)
Daryl Selby (Eng) bye
Finals from 12.00 tomorrow, straight down the draw on court two
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No joy for Bermudians on day one
but AIS boys cause upsets ...
It was always going to be a uphill task for the four locals in the
qualifying draw. Nick Kyme and Patrick Foster, ex-professionals,
found the going too tough while Chase Toogood and Melrindo Caines
were playing at a level that was faster and harder than they were
used to, and though the crowd at the BSRA courts in Devonshire
really got involved they couldn't will their boys to victory.
It was a good day for Australia as AIS members Ryan Cuskelly and
Scott Arnold caused the only two seeding upsets of the day, seeing
off Matthew Giuffre and Liam Kenny respectively.
Earlier withdrawals meant that byes were awarded to the top three
seeds - all English - with fourth seed Bradley Ball joining them as
he eased past Chris Gordon, while Egypt also has a quartet set to
appear in Saturday's qualifying finals ...
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Miguel Angel
Rodriguez (Col) bt Nick Kyme (Ber)
11/5, 11/8, 11/3 (24m)
Rodriguez dashes hopes
of dream start
There was no fairytale start to the Bermuda World Open, despite the
raucous home support for Nick Kyme. Granted the wildcard last year,
Nick, having withdrawn from the tour a year ago, found himself in
qualifying and up against Colombian speedster Miguel Angel
Rodriguez.
 The
Bermudian held his own at the start, but Rodriguez began to pull
away, his speed around court the telling factor, and Nick began to
struggle to keep up as he went one down.
There were whoops and hollers on every point won, but not enough of
them. After falling 7/2 behind in the second he managed to close to
8/6, but the Colombian pulled away again and, maintained the
pressure throughout third to complete the win.
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"It's been a year
since I played at that level. After the Masters here last year I
took six months off, and it's only in the last three or four months
I've got back into it. I enjoy playing now, but the fitness isn't
there, if I wanted to get back into it I'd be starting from scratch.
"It was weird, having my new 'fan base' here, all my co-workers from
Marsh, where I've been for six months."
"I had my shot and I'm glad I took the opportunity. I miss the guys
though, so it's great to have them all back here, but it's time to
move on, I just enjoy my squash now.
 "It
was a different atmosphere with all the crowd behind Nick. It's good
in your first match to see how you're playing and get used to the
conditions – there's a lot of humidity here.
"I tried to play a few long rallies to start, then when I got
comfortable went for a few short ones. Tomorrow will be different,
it will be really hard but I'll be giving it 100% and looking
forward to qualifying for one of the biggest events of the year …"
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Eric Galvez (Mex)
bt Melrindo Caines (Ber)
11/0, 11/2, 11/5 (15m)
 "He's
a fantastic player, I know him and a few of the other pros from when
I played in the PanAm Games. I was a bit nervous in the first two,
but I just went all out for it in the third, stated getting more
confidence and just tried to have as much fun as possible.
"I thought my serve on match-ball might have been just up, but the
ref obviously saw it differently!"
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Bradley Ball
(Eng) bt Chris Gordon (Usa)
11/5, 11/4, 11/5 (28m)
 "I
just want to give as good an account of myself as I can this week,
that's all you can do at the end of the day. I've played so many
matches this season where I've let people in, I've learned that you
just can't afford to give anyone of these guys a chance.
"So I went out hard from the beginning, and even though it's really
hot on there I thought I played pretty well … ruthless!"
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Ryan Cuskelly
(Aus) bt Matthew Giuffre (Can)
12/10, 11/9, 11/5 (48m)
 "I
was a bit edgy at the start, with it being my first World Open, but
I managed to recover from 5/2 down to win the first. I didn't feel I
was hitting the ball too well, so I was having to rely on my speed
and on just gusting in out.
"I wanted to get a quick start in the third, which I did, and once I
got a few points up I threw up a few high ones which he went for and
hit he tin.
"I had a few bad results in tournaments in Canada a few months ago,
but I've been based in New York with Rodney Martin for the last two
months, training and doing lots of running and fitness work. I feel
I'm better and fitter than earlier in the year, so I'm pleased to
get a win in my first World Open appearance …"
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The local hopefuls - Patrick Foster, Melrindo Caines, Chase Toogood
and Nick Kyme |
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Yasser El Halaby
(Egy) bt Morten Sorensen (Den)
11/9, 11/5, 7/11, 11/9 (42m)
 "It's
my first time in the World Open – I've never been ranked high enough
before, and every time I got my ranking up I seemed to get injured!
I'm not used to playing matches at that pace in Denmark, so I had to
work hard to get into the match. I should have won the first, I was
leading that one, and it could have gone either way in the fourth. I
was really annoyed at hitting the tin at the end of that really long
rally on match ball, but overall I struggled to keep on playing at
that pace.
"I thought I had a chance to qualify, and I had my chances in that
match, but coming in unseeded I knew it was going to be tough. At
least now I'll be able to enjoy a few days' holiday here!"
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Scott Arnold (Aus) bt Liam Kenny (Irl)
11/4, 11/8, 11/8 (41m)
 "After
I saw Ryan get through I thought I'd better do it too!
"It's one of my best wins, Liam's a good players, and rankings-wise
it's one of the biggest I've had.
"I got a good start, but after the first he worked his way into it
more, and it was tough all the way after that it was just a tight
match all round.
"It's great that all the Aussies are still in though …"
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Shawn Delierre (Can) bt
Jesse Engelbrecht (Rsa)
11/8, 11/8, 10/12, 7/11, 11/9 (69m)
 "There
was nothing in it in each game, but I was the one that was always
playing catchup. Going 2/0 down to someone like Shawn is never a
good idea, he feeds on confidence.
"From then on though I started to relax a little and played my best
squash, although he made a really good start to the fifth. I got
myself all the way back to 9-all, told myself I couldn't throw it
away now, changed the way I was playing and went negative and that's
exactly what I did …
"It would have been sweet to win my first match in my first world
open, but it's the first of many, I hope …"
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Elborolossy beats Balbo 3/1 |
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Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Patrick Foster (Irl)
11/6, 11/4, 11/8 (35m)
 "I
thought I might have played a bit better than that, to be honest. It's
true that he outplayed me all the way through, but as an
ex-professional I should have been able to move up the court and
take control of the rallies more.
"With so many people watching, all rooting for me, I really would
have liked to take a game, at least. I keep thinking about tinning
that easy shot when I was 7/4 up in the third … how did I do that ?!
"But he played a good solid game, no complaints.
"It was always going to be tough for the four of us, even with a big
crowd cheering for us. All of these guys seem to take the wind out
of you in the first half a game and it's tough after that …"
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Omar Mosaad (Egy)
bt Joe Chapman (Bvi)
11/2, 11/5, 11/7 (18m)
 "I've
known for two months that I'd be playing in this – every squash
player in the world dreams of playing in the world open, it's just
phenomenal to have even one match here, in my first PSA tournament.
"I thought I played well, I got a lot more points than I thought I
might and I really enjoyed the whole thing. I was lucky enough to go
to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne where I played Joe Kneipp, so
I'd played at this level before, but only once!
"I'm 17, and I'm the BVI national champion. I'll be going to
university in the US or England and I'll see what level of squash I
can reach over the next three years and take it from there."
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Omar Abdel Aziz
gets down to beat Samper |
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