16-Year-Old El Sherbini Ousts World #2 Duncalf In $70K WSA Malaysia First Round by Matt Wagg
March 28, 2012-
Three seeds are on their way home, but a teenage qualifier claims the
biggest scalp in round one of the CIMB Nicol David KL Open 2012.
In the best win of her WSA career to date, 16-year-old Egyptian
qualifier Nour El Sherbini got the better of world No2 Jenny Duncalf in
five games. The 48-minute match went back and forth between the
pair, but the Englishwoman was always playing catch-up after losing the
first game on the tiebreak. Sherbini's first round win guarantees
the teenager a new highest ranking place in the forthcoming April WSA
World Rankings.
Experienced No6 seed Rachael Grinham then faced qualifier Heba El
Torky, also of Egypt. Despite going 2-games down, the Australian
fought back in a mammoth 88-minute game, winning a tie-break fifth game
and booking her quarter-final place against the giant killer Sherbini.
The younger Grinham sister, Natalie fell foul to unseeded Annie Au of
Hong Kong in a four-game battle lasting just under an hour. Au
will go on to face No3 seed Laura Massaro, following the Englishwoman’s
comfortable 3-0 win over Samantha Teran of Mexico.
Young Egyptian Raneem El Weleily took half an hour to dispatch
home-hope Low Wee Wern in three games, to set up the most exciting of
tomorrow’s quarter-final matches. The No5 seed will go
head-to-head with fourth seed and last year’s runner-up Madeline Perry,
following the Irishwoman’s 3-1 win over Camille Serme of France.
The last qualifier to make it through to the quarters was Dipika
Pallikal of India. Pallikal got the better of No8 seed Kasey
Brown of Australia in three games, making it the Indian international’s
biggest WSA World Tour win to date.
Pallikal will progress to face the top seed and six-time World Champion
Nicol David, as the Malaysian looks set to defend her previous KL Open
win. The home favourite will also be hoping to be the first to
claim the title since the competition’s upgrade to World Series Gold
classification in February, when David’s name was also incorporated
into the event. The top seeded Malaysian beat Australian qualifier
Donna Urquhart to three games in 35-minutes.
Round one:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [Q] Donna Urquhart (AUS) 11-5, 11-5, 11-6 (35m)
Quarter-final draw: [1] Nicol David (MAS) v [Q] Dipika Pallikal (IND) [4] Madeline Perry (IRL) v [5] Raneem El Weleily (EGY) [3] Laura Massaro (ENG) v Annie Au (HKG) [Q] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) v [6] Rachael Grinham (AUS)