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BOYS U19
Quarters ...
[1] Ramy Ashour (Egy) bt [5/8] Bilal Zaman (Pak)
9/2, 9/6, 9/2 (33m)
[5/8] Omar Mossad (Egy) v [3/4] Farhan Mehboob (Pak)
9/3, 7/4 rtd
[3/4] Chris Simpson (Eng) bt [5/8] Tarek Momen (Egy)
9/6, 9/7, 9/1 (52m)
[2] Aamir Atlas Khan (Pak) bt [5/8] Simon Rosner (Ger)
9/3, 9/7, 5/9, 9/2 (68m)
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Ramy Reaches the Semis
| [1] Ramy
Ashour (Egy) bt [5/8] Bilal Zaman (Pak) 9/2, 9/6, 9/2
(33m) |
Top seed Ramy Ashour scored another
straight-games win to reach the semi-finals, but as in yesterday's matches
he needed to stage a mini-comeback to maintain his record of 3/0 wins.
The Egyptian's flair was evident in the first, as he raced to a 7/0 lead
over Bilal Zaman, repeatedly deceiving the Pakistani, eventually taking it
9/2.
But errors at the start of the second helped to put Ramy 6/0 down.
Lengthening the rallies, he slowly worked his way back, and once level
quickly finished the game off with a trio of fine winners.
The third was a carbon copy of the first, Ramy attacking now at every
opportunity to go 6/0 up, and despite a brief rally towards the end Bilal's
fate was sealed.
 "I
don't understand what happened when I was 6/0 up. It's not that I made
mistakes or anything, I still can't explain it now, it's so bad ... so
bad."
Bilal Zaman |
|
 "I
knew I needed to come out fast and sharp in the first, and I played
really well, I thought I was going to win that one 9/0.
"I felt I didn't get the better of some decisions in the second, and it
threw my concentration off. At 6/0 down you have to be patient, so I
kept the rallies going, not asking for anything, and got it back.
"Once I was at six-all I started going for my shots again and from then
on it was quite easy.
"I'm in the semi-final now, and I feel very good. I've still got a lot
more deceptions and flicks that I haven't used yet ..."
Ramy Ashour |
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Simpson tames Tarek
| [3/4] Chris
Simpson (Eng) bt [5/8] Tarek Momen (Egy)
9/6, 9/7, 9/1 (52m) |
England's Chris Simpson reached his
second successive British Open U19 semi-final with a well-earned 3/0 win
over last year's finalist Tarek Momen.
 The
Egyptian made Simpson do most of the running in the first game, his precise
shots sending the Englishman to all corners of the court. But Simpson stayed
in touch, took the lead at 6/5 and despite breaking a string on game ball
closed the game out 9/6.
Momen took a quick lead in the second with two delightful deceptions at the
front, and quickly turned that into a 7/2 advantage. Simpson worked his way
back again, keeping the ball to the back wherever possible as the rallies
grew longer. As the Englishman closed the gap, levelling at 7-all, Momen was
rallying too, probablt not a wise option for the Egyptian. Two no lets for
Momen and Simpson was two games to the good.
After a cagey opening to the third, Momen was going for his shots again, but
by now Simpson was reading them, and it was the Egyptian who was under
pressure as the match drifted away from him.
Simpson missed his first match ball, going for a kill too early, but after
three lets on his second chance he was in the semi-finals following an
assured performance. |
 "The
first was a gutsy game, my length wasn't too good so I just had to hang
in as best I could.
"He makes you work for it, he has lovely flicks and is very hard to
read, and the ball stays low on this court which makes it more
difficult.
"From the middle of the second my length was much better, and from then
on it was ok, I felt in control.
"The crowd were a bit quiet at the end, English crowds tend to be unless
there's a real thriller going on. But the Egyptians are always noisy,
like they were at the start, so I guess it shows I was doing well that
they were quiet."
Chris Simpson |
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Mike Harris & Simpson |
Mehboob & Rahmat Khan |
Magdy Saad & Momen |
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Mehboob fell and injured his hand, and was unable to continue ... |
GIRLS U19
Quarters ...
[1] Raneem El Weleily (Egy) bt Neha Kimar (Can) 9/2,
9/5, 9/2
[3/4] Rachel Willmott (Eng) bt Soraya Renai (Fra)
9/7, 9/2, 9/4
[3/4] Nihal Yehia (Egy) bt Deon Saffery (Eng)
9/4, 9/6, 9/7
[2] Lina El Tannir (Egy) bt Fiona Moverley (Eng)
9/5, 9/3, 9/0
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Raneem & Nehar |
Advice for Renaii |
Willmott into semis |
Boys U17
Quarters ...
[9/16] Norman Junge (Ger) bt Rudi Willemse (Rsa)
10/8, 9/5, 7/9, 9/7
[5/8] Joe Lee (Eng) bt Kristian Olsen (Den)
9/7, 9/5, 9/3
[3/4] Shohaib Hassan (Pak) bt Adrian Waller (Eng)
9/5, 9/4, 9/2
[2] Mohamed A A Reda (Egy) bt Nicholas Muller (Swi) 9/3, 9/4,
9/4
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Two Determined Characters
| [9/16] Norman
Junge (Ger) bt Rudi Willemse (Rsa)
10/8, 9/5, 7/9, 9/7 (76m) |
What a battle! 76 minutes of unrelenting
excitement, fast action, a few disputes, intense crowd involvement, two
players not willing to give an inch and finally, finally, a German
semi-finalist.
South Africa have a large contingent here, and Rudi, conqueror of the top
seed last night, was their last remaining competitor in the main draw so the
team were out in force, and they were very vocal ...
I caught the end of the first game, and by the noise when the South African
levelled at 8-all I thought it must be the fifth, not the first. Junge went
on to take the first 10-8, and the crowd were further silenced when he took
the second 9/5 in 20 minutes, looking the stronger player.
But Rudi is a fighter, and despite going 2-0 down in the third, made 3-0 by
a conduct stroke for language, he battled back to lead 6-3, getting the
better of some incredibly hard-fought rallies.
Norman is a fighter too - he's actually half South African on his father's
side - and he too fought his way back to level before losing the game on a
controversial ending.
The German took the opportunity to clean his glasses after the last four
points of the game. On the second occasion he was warned - 'you've just done
it, play on'. On the third occasion he was given a conduct warning for
timewasting. On the fourth occasion, after going game ball down, it was a
conduct stroke, much to his and the German team's displeasure.
The fourth saw the same intense rallies, loud but good-humoured crowd
involvement, and after 21 minutes the German emerged the winner to a
standing ovation from both sets of supporters.
It was one of those matches where no-one deserved to lose ... but someone
had to. |
"That was a tough match, but it was a clean, hard fight and a credit to
the sport.
"They were both totally wiped out at the end, especially since they both
had such hard matches yesterday.
"I told Norman before the match that it would be exceptional if Rudi
could play two matches like that in a row, but he did, he played really
well.
"Norman's South African side came out though, and he fought just as
hard, so it's a great result for the team.
Barry Dodson
German National Coach |
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South African crowd |
Norman & Rudi |
English team support |
Girls U17
Quarters ...
[1] Camille Serme (Fra) bt Shin Nga Leung (Hkg)
9/10, 10/9, 9/5, 9/6 (59m)
[3/4] Aliaa Balbaa (Egy) bt Victoria Bell (Eng)
9/3, 9/1, 9/1
[3/4] Wee wern Low (Mas) bt Misaki Kobayashi (Jpn) 9/2, 9/0, 9/1
[2] Nour Mohsen (Egy) bt Victoria Lust (Eng)
9/3, 9/1, 3/9, 9/1
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Semi-Final for Serme
[1] Camille
Serme (Fra) bt Shin Nga Leung (Hkg)
9/10, 10/9, 9/5, 9/6 (59m) |
France's top seed Camille Serme
survived a stern challenge from Hong Kong's Shin Nga Leung in the
quarter-finals at Hallamshire.
 The
first game was close all the way, Leung countering Serme's powerful shots
with a willingness to retrieve anything thrown at her, repling with precise
drives, boasts, and especially drops. The 14 minute game inevitably reached
8-all, and at 9/9 game ball to Leung, Serme was denied a let for backswing
interference, much to her disgust.
The second followed a similar pattern, but the French girl started to get
frustrated at being unable to put the ball away and errors started to creep
into her game as Leung opened out a 5/2 advantage.
Serme worked her way back, with the work Leung had done beginning to take
its toll. Unforced errors from the French girl kept the score close, and the
intensity of the rallies showed that both girls knew that this game was
crucial. Serme finally levelled the match at Leung hit the tin at 9-all to
end the 23-minute game.
Serme was the clear favourite now against a tiring opponent. More unforced
errors from good positions didn't help her cause, but she maintained healthy
leads throughout the last two games, and with Leung starting to cramp
towards the end the French had a semi-finalist after a tense 59 minutes. |
"It was a hard, hard game. The second was crucial to win,
as Leung had to do a lot of running in the first two
games so it was important to stop her going two games up.
"I am happy!"
Philippe Signoret
French Coach |
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MORNING REPORTS:
Seeds storm through in U15
Girls
The first matches at Abbeydale saw the start of the Girls U15 event, 16
matches in all. Many were quite one-sided, with a lot of love scores around.
Top seed Heba Allaa Ahmed had too much firepower for Kent's Annabel
Collins-Balland, winning 9/1, 9/2, 9/0 in a quarter of an hour.
"It's my second BJO," said Annabel. "I played a 3/4 seed last year and that
was hard, but Heba was just so good today, I'v. I the never played anyone of
that standard before. I thought I played well, hit some good shots, but she
gets everything back and her boasts are just so tight and so tricky you've
got no chance, her wristy shots are so good."
"You need to be able to get into rallies to be able to compete with these
players," dad Martin agreed.
An upset, on paper at least, saw Egypt's unseeded Nouran El Torky
beat Pakistan's 9/16 seed Anna Karder 9/2, 9/1, 9/0, although I suspect that
has more to do with some Egyptian names that the seeding committee didn't
recognise ...
Both Indian competitors started well, with Anwesha Reddy and
Dipika Pallikal dropping just one point between them, and Canada's Laura
Gemmell, winner of the Canadian, US and Scottish opens, also dropped just a
single point. |
Martin and Annabel
Nouran El Torky |
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English interest in
Girls U19
Top seed Raneem El Weleily eased into the quarter-finals with a 3/0
win over Yorkshire's Sapphire Sutcliffe, the first match for the world
champion, having had a bye in the first round, as all the seeded players
reached tonight's quarter-finals.
 Raneem
meets Canada's Neha Kumar, who beat her room-mate Britt Hebden 5/9,
9/3, 9/2, 9/4. After a slow start Kumar started to find her range with her
lobs and drops, and although Hebden fought well, the American couldn't stop
Kumar maintaining her winning record between the two.
"Neither of us were playing particularly well," Kumar said after the match,
"it was early in the morning, and neither of us have had a proper runout
since the Scottish last week, so it was a bit scrappy.
"We both have late matches tonight, so hopefully we'll be able to play at
our best then."
The other quarter-finals, Rachel Willmott v Soraya Renaii, Nihal Yehia v
Deon Saffery, and Lina El Tannir v Fiona Moverley, all feature English
interest, with the Willmott/Renai match of much interest to the strong
French squad.
|
 "Most
of the events are certainly much more open this year, the Egyptians and
Pakistanis don't seem to be quite as dominant as in recent years, which
is a healthy sign.
"England are doing well in the Boys U17, with two quarter-finalists and
a potential finalist in Joe Lee, something we've not had for a few
years.
"Other countries are doing well too, some of the European nations
especially are catching up a bit. Germany are strong in the boys, the
French have a good squad, especially in the girls, and lots of other
nations are still in the main draws, which is good to see.
"I don't think it's that the Egyptians and Pakistanis are any weaker,
but other countries are catching up, which must be good for the game."
David Campion
England Coach |
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Neha Kumar & Britt Hebden |
Anwesha Reddy & Dipika Pallikal |
Girls U17:
Misaki Kobayashi (Jpn) bt Alicia
Rodriguez (Mex)
9/3, 9/3, 9/0 (22m) |
 Japan's
5/8 seed Misaki Kobayashi had a little too much in the locker today for her
Mexican opponent today. Misaki's shots were always that bit tighter and more
precise, and although Alicia was willing to chase down everything that was
thrown at her, she was rarely able to get in front of her opponent.
Given a chance, the Mexican had powerful shots that could cause trouble, but
too rarely did she find the time to play them, and too often did she find
the tin.
After challenging at the start of the second the Japanese pulled away, and a
quick start to the second saw her wrap up the match quickly to advance to
the last sixteen. |
Advice from Sandar Khan for Alicia
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Misaki with a squash towel mnufactured by her father |
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