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| Fri 16th
Dec: Day ONE |
VOICE in Saudi ...
Meanwhile ... in nearby Bahrain ... |
Seeds Safely Through
In Saudi ...
A 32-man draw featuring all
the world's top players kicked off in Al-Khobar today - the final leg of
the 'Big Four' - a full month after
qualifying concluded in Surrey, and the
first ever professional squash event in the kingdom.
Action on the opening day took place on three courts - two conventional
courts at the hugely impressive sports centre, and from 5.30 on the
specially-erected Glass Court - a later start than originally planned, due
to light coming onto the court, so play could not start until darkness
fell.
There were no upsets as all sixteen seeds moved into tomorrow's second
round.
The longest match of the day, by a long way, was David Palmer's
80-minute five-game win over Mohamed Abbas, the shortest Azlan Iskandar's
19-minute victory over Mansoor Zaman.
Four matches were held on the glass court today - with the opening
ceremony squeezed in before Olli Tuominen took on local local
wildcard Bandare Alotaibi and top seed Thierry Lincou rounded off
the day.
Pick of tomorrow's matches are the French duel between Lincou and Gregory
Gaultier, and Peter Nicol against John White ... stay tuned ... |
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ROUND
ONE results |
[1] Thierry Lincou bt
Joe Kneipp
11/8, 11/4, 11/2 (28m)
[12] Gregory Gaultier bt [Q] Stewart
Boswell 11/7, 11/6, 11/4 (46m)
[8] James Willstrop bt [Q] Renan
Lavigne 11/5, 11/4,
11/7 (28m)
[16]
Shahid Zaman bt [Q] Rodney Durbach
w/d
[3]
Anthony Ricketts bt [Q] Ramy Ashour
11/6, 14/12, 11/6 (43m)
[13]
Graham Ryding bt [Q] Joey Barrington
11/4, 11/2, 11/9 (38m)
[7]
Peter Nicol bt Adrian Grant
11/9, 11/8, 11/6 (43m)
[9]
John White bt Peter Barker
w/o (ankle injury)
[14] Azlan Iskandar bt Mansoor Zaman
11/7, 11/6, 11/1 (19m)
[5] Lee Beachill bt [Q] Laurens Jan Anjema
11/7, 9/11, 11/5, 11/4 (51m)
[11] Nick Matthew bt Wael El Hindi
11/5, 11/13, 11/7, 11/1
[4] Amr Shabana bt [Q] Alex Gough
13/11, 11/5, 13/11 (41m)
[10] Karim Darwish bt Ong Beng Hee
4/11, 11/6, 12/10, 11/7 (47m)
[3] David Palmer bt
Mohammed Abbas
8/11, 13/11, 11/7, 7/11, 11/8 (80m)
[15] Olli Tuominen bt Bandare Alotaibi
11/3, 11/1, 11/3 (18m)
[2] Jonathon Power bt [Q] Cameron Pilley
11/6, 11/3, 11/7 (39m)
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