Top Seeds Crash Out In Charlottesville by Nathan Clarke September 20, 2014
- Top seeds Adrian Grant and Chris Simpson crashed out of the ILEX
Construction Charlottesville Open at the quarter-final stage yesterday. The
duo came out on the wrong end of two epic encounters against French
qualifier Lucas Serme and Egypt's Karim Ali Fathi, respectively, with
both contests going down to a fifth and deciding game after over
80-minutes of action. Serme,
the 22-year-old from Creteil, continued his giant-killing form to
follow up his surprise first round victory over number six seed Ryan
Cuskelly with an impressive 11-5, 6-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-2 win over
tournament favourite Grant, taking 83-minutes to see off the man ranked
42 places above him on the PSA World Rankings. Simpson,
the World No.25 from Guernsey, had an equally tough day at the office
after seeing a 2-1 lead slip against Egyptian Fathi before the man from
Cairo powered home to complete an 11-8, 3-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-7 victory,
taking just one minute longer than Serme to end the hopes of the number
two seed. Number
three seed Alister Walker of Botswana and number four seed Tom Richards
of England had no such issues in their quarter-final match-ups however,
coming through with relative ease against Declan James and Campbell
Grayson to book their places in the semi-finals. ILEX Construction Charlottesville Open: Quarter-final Results:
[Q] Lucas Serme (FRA) bt [1] Adrian Grant (ENG) 3-2: 11-5, 6-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-2 [83mins] [4] Tom Richards (ENG) bt [7] Campbell Grayson (NZL) 3-1: 11-8, 10-12, 11-5, 11-5 [65mins] [3] Alister Walker (BOT) bt [Q] Declan James (ENG) 3-0: 11-7, 14-12, 11-8 [38mins] [8] Karim Ali Fathi (EGY) bt [2] Chris Simpson (ENG) 3-2: 11-8, 3-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-7 [84mins] ILEX Construction Charlottesville Open: Semi-final Draw:
[Q] Lucas Serme (FRA) v [4] Tom Richards (ENG) [3] Alister Walker (BOT) v [8] Karim Ali Fathi (EGY)
