World #5 El Sherbini Prevails In Tight Match Over Sobhy In Women's British 1st Round, Cornett & Khan Lose by Steve Cubbins
photos courtesy Steve Cubbins
May 21, 2013
- Round One of the Allam British Open women's draw at Pontefract Squash
and Leisure saw three seeded players succumb to defeat and six British
players through to contest the second round at the KC Stadium in Hull.
The biggest upset came in the first match of the day as the in-form
Sarah-Jane Perry scored a stunning 3-1 win over seventh seeded
Malaysian Low Wee Wern after coming from 7-1 down to take the fourth
game.
"It's going pretty well at the minute," admitted a delighted Perry."
The second was really important, she was starting to get into the
rallies and picking off anything I left short, so to go 2-0 up was a
massive boost.
"I was very random at the start of the fourth, I just told myself to
get back to basic squash and wait for the chance to introduce my random
shots!
"It's my first win over a top ten player in WSA, so it's going pretty well, I didn't expect to do this well this soon."
The other Englishwoman to upset the seedings was Sarah Kippax, who won
a seesaw five-setter with former world number two Natalie Grinham, the
10th seed.
"It's definitely my best performance in the tournament and I've played in it a good few times," said Kippax.
Natalie's sister Rachael Grinham, four-time British Open Champion, had
her own five-setter but managed to survive, coming back from two games
and 3-6 down to Nicolette Fernandes, the Caribbean number one who had
beater her from two games down in the Cayman World Open.
"That's a bit of revenge," said the Aussie 16th seed. ""I sort of let
the second go after a bad start, but she took the momentum into the
third so it was tough coming back from there."
The third upset came from Egyptian Nour El Tayeb, who was reprieved
from qualifying by a late withdrawal, and took advantage by beating
France's 9th seed Camile Serme in four games.
"I had to watch the matches from home last year," said Tayeb, "I had
too many exams - actually, I'm supposed to have an exam at home today,
but I don't care!"
The other Brits to progress were Jenny Duncalf, Laura Massaro, Madeline
Perry and Alison Waters, along with defending champion and world number
one Nicol David and further Egyptians Raneem El Weleily, Nour El
Sherbini and Omneya Abdel Kawy.
The last match on court at Pontefract was also the longest of the
women's event so far as India's Dipika Pallikal overcame Dane Line
Hansen in a 76-minute marathon, finishing the match with a typical
return of the serve straight into the nick.
When informed of the length of the match, the Indian's response was "YES, I'm fit!"
