This tournament is smaller in prize money compared to the earlier set. The tournament started on Monday morning and evening with the qualifying rounds. And yesterday was the 1st rounds for both men and women. I am a little busy to do updates and will try to do some from the quarterfinals onwards.
Quarterfinals 15/7/09
Ivan was up against Jan Koukal again. Ivan lost to Jan 3-0 in the previous tournament and the signs were good as he took the 1st game. But again like he always does, Jan got into rhythm and started to dominate and duly won the next game to even the score at 1-1. The 3rd game went to Ivan and the 4th was taken by Jan. The 5th was an easy game for Ivan as Jan's resistance was broken. Ivan played well, much better than the previous tournament. Maybe the tough 1st round woke him up and so he now has a good chance of reaching the finals.
The other court was an all Pakistani affair with Arshad Burki upsetting the higher ranked Waqar Mehboob in 5. There were more lets in this rather than the squash.
Next on was Wan against Max Lee who may be a little tired after 70 min battle with Elvinn in the 1st round. But it didn't show as Max come out sharper and quicker compared to Wan who was slow and erratic and he presented the 1st game to Max. Wan Gradually worked his way back into the match by reducing the errors which were still high and managed to squeeze the 2nd in a tie break. With a little rthythm back, he was much better in the 3rd and won it comfortably. But Max was not done yet and he made a big fight of it in the 4th but Wan managed to close it with a tie break.
The last match was again a rematch of Asyraf and Yasir Butt. Yasir edged Asyraf in the previous match 3-0 with all the gams going into tie breaks. Today however, Asyraf was on fire and went 2-0 up but Yasir managed to claw the 3rd. It was neck to neck till 8-8 in the 4th but then Asyraf crumbled and made 3 errors in a row to allow Yasir to win it 11-8. The same story happened again in the 5th where it was neck to neck till 7-7. Yasir managed to squeeze a few of points to reach matchball but Asyraf managed to fight back and force a tie break. Asyraf's resistance was finally broken with 2 errors immediately after forcing the tie break. Good performance but terrible behaviour on court by Asyraf who could have been better by playing squash rather than trying to fish for lets and strokes.
The girls side was all according to the seedings except that Siti managed to upset her opponent 3-0 to make it an all Malaysian semifinals. Delia also came through 3-0 but Sharon and Wee Wern both dropped a game before coming through.
Semifinals 16/7/09
All Malaysian finals! Ivan was first on court and he took Arshad Bukri apart 3-0. Ivan was superior in all aspects and never was troubled by Burki.
Delia was on against Siti next and was coasting 2-0 before Siti managed to squeeze the 3rd 11-9 and force a 4th. Delia then upped the pace and duly closed it 11-1.
Next was Wan against Yasir Butt. Wan started off very loose and got chopped by a sharp looking Yasir. Wan tightened up and duly won the 2nd but Yasir got ahead again in the 3rd as he was reading Wan's game too easily. A variation in shots got Wan on level terms and he stayed ahead in the 5th to close it and made it an all Malaysian final tomorrow.
Sharon and Wee Wern were up next and Sharon won it 3-1. It was not the best of matches as Wee Wern was not feeling too good and that showed in her match.
For updates and results, please refer here. Till then, Happy squashing.
P.S.
Latest news
Delia and Wan won the finals and congrats to them. Refer to Squashsite for details
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