Kuala Lumpur Qualifying Reports
by Andrew Cross, for Squash365.com
March 27, 2012 - The CIMB Nicol David KL open final round of qualifying got underway with some extremely difficult matches. After yesterday's rather comfortable matches on the women’s side today was the first real day for the women to showcase their sport at the highest level.
The opening two matches were extremely close with two upcoming juniors taking to the court, Dipika Pallikal from India taking on Nour El Tayeb from Egypt.
Dipika had a highest ranking of 14 last month against Tayeb whose highest ranking of 12 at the end of 2011, so on paper this promised to be close and so it proved to be.
The opening game was 10.10 when Dipika finished it off with a low backhand volley and then El Tayeb hit the tin. El Tayeb then squared the match at one game all and built a healthy lead in the third to 6-2 but Dipika came back strong to lead 10.7 and she closed out the game 11.8. El Tayeb came back to win the fourth 11.9 but Dipika eventually close it out in the fifth. This was the opening match in what proved to be a high quality night for women’s squash.
Jacklyn Hawkes was looking to use her experience against Heba El Torky and again this proved to be a close match. The last time they met back in 2010 it was a 3-1 win to Heba and so this was the case again tonight. A slightly scrappy match that seemed to suit the Egyptian more than Hawkes. The opening games were shared before Heba went on to win the third and the fourth and the fourth only just 14-12.
The second matches onto the court saw two well established players taking to the court when the last surviving local player Delia Arnold took to the court to take on Donna Urquhart from Australia. Considering how long they have been playing on the tour these two have actually never played before.
An even opening game stood at 11-10 to Donna when Donna caught Delia in the face with the racket. Delia received a small nick to the face yet somehow it was deemed self inflicted by the referee so she only had three minutes to sort out the injury. Donna went on to win the opening game. Very quickly it became two games to nil. In the third Delia got off to a better start leading 5-0 and then 10-2 before winning 11-3. The fourth was close up until the midpoint of the game when Donna put together a few points to lead 10-6 and she closed out the match to book her spot in the first round against Nicol David.
Joelle King and Nour El Sherbini took to the next court and this one promised to be a great match. Both women strike the ball beautifully and powerfully, with both girls finishing off their opponents yesterday in 14 minutes they both had plenty of energy to offer to the match.
This proved to be a high quality match with Sherbini taking the opening games with lots of attacking shots from the back of the court. Any shot that king left half court to ¾ court and with an angle usually ended with a straight drop. In games two and three King found better length and managed to limit the angles that she provided Sherbini with.
The fourth was tight all the way with until King held match balls at 11-10, five lets followed as both players played safe waiting for the opportunity. However King left Sherbini with two angles and Sherbini obliged to hit two winners and force a fifth.
King started better in the fifth taking a 4-0 lead but Sherbini fought back to lead. The next few points were shared until Sherbini got a few points clear again attacking well from the back of the court.
This was the final match of the night and there was a big crowd to see who would win. Eventually Sherbini won the match on a stroke in what was a high quality match.
It was a great night for women’s squash and im sure that the people involved in it have a lot to be happy and proud about.
On the men’s side of the draw the opening matches saw Matthew Karwalski from Australia prevail over Gurshan Singh and Leo Au back up his tough match from yesterday with a win over Asyraf Azan.
Matthew seeming to struggle with a leg injury used the height on the front wall to recover back to the middle and had a little bit too much experience for the local who received a walkover yesterday.
Asyraf and Leo played quite a scrappy match with lots of points ending in lets and collisions around the middle of the court. Leo held his composure better and remained focus despite all the distractions to see off the local boy.
Adrian Waller played with a great variety of pace and deception to see off the last local in qualifying Kamran Khan. Waller played a brilliant opening game winning it 11-1 before Khan got back into the match. The second and third were competitive but Waller never looked like he was going to lose after playing so commandingly in the opening game.
The final match of the night proved to be a brilliant match that went all the way to a fifth. It was a match that has contrasting styles Zac Alexander the Australian that has a very good strong basic game against the unpredictable Abdullah Almezayen. Abdullah got off to the better start using his deception to hold Zac on the T looking to play a drop and then push the ball to the back of the court.
Lots of drops were coming off Abdullahs racket that stayed way up the court catching Zac hanging back a little bit.
Zac was also playing well he never gives an opponent anything for free and to win a point you are required to work extremely hard for it. The opening four games were shared but Abdullah got the better start in the fifth and quickly led 10-2. He eventually finished it off 11-2 and even though the match may have only been 52 minutes long there were a lot of short sharp intense rallies.
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