Ashour, Gaultier, Willstrop Through to British Open Second Round by Nathan Clarke May 13, 2014
- French duo Gregory Gaultier, the World No.1, and Gregoire Marche, the
World No.33, led the way during day two of the Allam British Open at
the KC Sports Arena in Hull as they progressed to the second round of
the prestigious PSA World Series event.
Gaultier, the
tournament's number two seed, was in emphatic form as he saw off the
challenge of England's Chris Simpson 3-0 while 24-year-old qualifier
Marche rallied from two games down to upset Australian Cameron Pilley
in a five game thriller.
Marche's dramatic
victory came just after Columbian pocket-rocket Miguel Angel Rodriguez
had also risen from 2-0 down against qualifier Nicolas Mueller to turn
the match on its head and set the scene for an action-packed day.
"It is a great feeling to qualify, especially at this tournament, because it is one of the biggest on the tour," said Marche.
"It is just a great
feeling to play in it and I go up against [Amr] Shabana in the next
round who, for me, is one of the best players in the world, so I hope I
can be as good as I was today and maybe I can go through to the
quarter-finals.
"During my match I was
thinking about the previous match between Nicolas Mueller and Miguel
Angel Rodriguez, when Miguel came back from 2-0 down, so I kept
fighting and thankfully it worked."
In a day full of
shocks, Dutch national champion Laurens Jan Anjema remains in
contention for honours after England's World No.8 Peter Barker retired
through injury but there were no issues for defending British Open
Champion Ramy Ashour, as the sublimely talented Egyptian was in
commanding form getting past compatriot Marwan Elshorbagy 3-0.
"It's obviously the
last tournament of the season so everyone is saying that there is one
big push left and everyone wants to give his best,” Ashour said
afterwards.
"You can see how tough the matches are from first rounds in tournaments now which shows how strong the game has become.
“You don't want to
spend your summer not being very happy or satisfied with yourself or
your performance. Everyone wants to give 100% and every match counts so
being in the second round is a big step and hopefully I can keep on
taking those steps."
Elsewhere, Egyptians
Omar Mossad and Amr Shabana successfully booked their second round
berths while English World No.6 James Willstrop came through arguably
the toughest match of the day against German Simon Rösner.
2014 Allam British Open - First Round, Bottom Half Results: [3] Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt [Q] Marwan Elshorbagy (EGY) 3-0: 12-10, 11-4, 11-8 [34m] Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) bt Peter Barker (ENG) 11-5, 11-5 retired [29m] Omar Mosaad (EGY) bt Stephen Coppinger (RSA) 3-0: 11-8, 12-10, 11-6 [52m] [5] James Willstrop (ENG) bt Simon Rösner (GER) 3-1: 5-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9 [76m] [7] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [Q] Max Lee (HKG) 3-1:11-6, 11-5, 7-11, 11-8 [52m] [Q] Gregoire Marche (FRA) bt Cameron Pilley (AUS) 3-2: 9-11, 3-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-4 [80m] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) bt [Q] Nicolas Mueller (SUI) 3-2: 10-12, 6-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5 [81m] [2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt Chris Simpson (ENG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-2, 11-3 [32m]
2014 Allam British Open - Second Round Draw: [1] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Daryl Selby (ENG) [Q] Fares Dessouki (EGY) v [8] Karim Darwish (EGY) Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) v Adrian Grant (ENG) Tarek Momen (EGY) v [4] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) [3] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) Omar Mosaad (EGY) v [5] James Willstrop (ENG) [7] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [Q] Gregoire Marche (FRA) Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) v [2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
