Toronto's Razik Schools Indian Rising Star Ghosal In North American Open First Round
from DailySquashReport.com
February 21, 2012 - Thirty-four-year-old Shahier Razik of Canada fought off an early game ball and went on to grind out a 72-minute four game win over 27th-ranked Saurav Ghosal of India in Richmond, Virginia, yesterday, to advance to the North American Open second round.
In other first round action, James Willstrop straight-setted Nicholas Mueller, and Adrian Grant upset Hisham Ashour.
Alan Thatcher reports:
Watching the world's top players is both educational and inspirational. And the top stars certainly delivered quality squash on the opening day of the main draw. Gregory Gaultier, Amr Shabana and Azlan Iskandar all produceed masterful performances of quality squash that drew admiring responses from their opponents.
Ollie Pett, Siddarth Suchde and Campbell Grayson all received a close-up lesson of squash genius as they battled in vain to stem the flow of winners from their opponents.
All three were highly entertaining encounters. All three ended in straight-games results.
After Patrick's highly entertaining encounter with Thierrry Lincou, top seed James Willstrop served up another master-class in the final matcch of the evening as he beat rising Swiss tar Nic Mueller, again in straight gamess.
Mueller is an exceptional talent. But Willstrop is clearly in a special zone of motivation, enriched by recent achievements and a desire to continue that winning form.
Earlier, Adrian Grant joined outclassed Hisham Ashour in straight games to earn a place in the second round against fellow left-hander Amr Shabana.
Rest of the top half: Willstrop v Lincou; Iskandar v Gawad; Gaultier v Razik.
A great start to the week. Here's looking forward to more of the same tomorrow.
First Round Results - Top Half
Shahier Razik (Can) 3-1 Saurav Ghosal (Ind) 13/11, 6/11, 11/9, 11/6 (72m)
[Q] Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) 3-0 Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) 11/8, 11/9, 11/9 (55m)
[8] Azlan Iskandar (Mas) 3-0 [Q] Campbell Grayson (Nzl) 11/6, 11/8, 11/5 (45m)
[3] Grégory Gaultier (Fra) 3-0 [Q] Olivier Pett (Eng) 11/5, 11/6, 11/7 (32m)
[6] Amr Shabana (Egy) 3-0 [Q] Siddarth Suchde (Ind) 11/3, 11/5, 11/5 (32m)
Adrian Grant (Eng) 3-0 Hisham Ashour (Egy) 11/ 7/11, 11/, 11/3 (29m)
Thierry Lincou (Fra) 3-0 Patrick Chifunda (Zam) 11/3, 11/3, 11/8
[1] James Willstrop (Eng) v Nicolas Mueller (Sui) 11/9, 11/6, 11/6 (38m)
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