Seeds Take A Battering In 1st Round PSA Vancouver Comfort Inn Qualifying
by Paul Marley
January 10, 2012 - A fabulous evening of squash was featured in the opening round of qualifying play at the $50,000 2012 Comfort Inn Squash Championships, presented by the Evergreen Squash Club and Hosting BC/Province of British Columbia, being held at the Evergreen Squash Club on Vancouver’s North Shore.
The purpose of the qualifying rounds, which conclude Wednesday evening – main draw play starts on Thursday - is to determine which four qualifiers, in a sixteen player draw, will advance to the main draw joining the already pre-determined twelve participants.
As the tournament has grown over the past seven years, the caliber of squash presented in the opening round of qualifying play has progressed nicely from being pretty dozy to being very entertaining.
Here are a few of the highlights:
- The seeds got rocked tonight as the number one, five and eight seeds lost.
- All five Canadians lost tonight although Dane Sharp put up a very spirited effort in losing to the number two qualifying seed Henrik Mustonen from Finland in 60 mins.
- Both Egyptians and all three Englishmen prevailed in their matches.
- The Egyptians are hoping to win tomorrow as they would join their five countrymen in the main draw. Three Egyptians are the first three seeds in the main draw including World #8 and four time world champion, Amr Shabana.
- In his first visit to the Comfort Inn Squash Championships, the seventeen year old Egyptian, Mohamed Abouelghar, impressed the gallery tonight in taking down the number one seed, and a frequent and very popular participant in this event, Miguel Rodriguez. Abouelghar was a finalist in the British Junior last month and a finalist in the World Junior in the summer. He obviously has a bright future and it will be most interesting to see if he can progress into the main draw.
In addition to the 25 professionals from 12 countries, over 150 amateurs start play tomorrow evening.
For the professionals, play continues tomorrow at 6:00pm at the Evergreen Squash Club in North Vancouver – and the public is most welcome to attend - with the following four matches concluding the final round of qualification play:
M. Abouelghar (EGY) vs Mark Krajcsak (HUN)
(4) Jan Koukal (CZE) vs Joe Lee (ENG)
(3) Chris Simpson (ENG) vs (7) Adrian Waller (ENG)
(2) Henrik Mustonen (FIN) vs (6) Amr Khaled Khalifa (EGY)
This evening’s results are as follows:
M. Abouelghar (EGY) def (1) M.A. Rodriguez (COL) 8-11; 11-7; 11-8; 11-9 in 50 mins
Mark Krajcsak (HUN) def (8) Campbell Grayson (NZL) 11-6; 14-12; 11-3 in 55 mins
Joe Lee (ENG) def (5) Cesar Salazar (MEX)11-6; 4-11; 12-10; 11-4 in 49 mins
(4) Jan Koukal (CZE) def (L) Zac Leman (CAN) 11-7; 11-6; 11-4 in 26 mins
(3) Chris Simpson (ENG) def (L) Sarfarez (CAN) 11-2; 11-4; 11-6 in 20 mins
(7) Adrian Waller (ENG) def Andrew Schnell (CAN) 11-5; 11-9; 11-9 in 20 mins
(6) Amr Khaled Khalifa (EGY) def (L) Morgan Laremouille (CAN) 11-8;11-5; 11-9 in 22 mins
(2) Henrik Mustonen (FIN) def Dane Sharp (CAN) 12-10; 8-11; 11-3; 7-11; 11-3 in 60 mins
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