KL Open 2010

What a semifinals we had!! Ramy showed his class and Darwish was comfortable in their win over Beng Hee and Azlan respectively. Nicol will go up against Omneya to decide who wins the title. Final are as follows:

Men

Ramy Ashour beat Karim Darwish 11/8, 11/8, 11/9

Women

Nicol David vs Omneya Abdel Kawy 11/4, 11/2, 13/11

I will be having live scoring again with the help of Squashstars. You can catch it live on Astro Arena on channel 801. Photos can be viewed here.

KL Open 2010

The semifinal line up are as follows:

Men

Karim Darwish beat Azlan Iskandar 11/6, 11/6, 11/7

Ramy Ashour beat Ong Beng Hee 11/5, 8/11, 11/6, 11/7

Women

Omneya Abdel Kawy beat Jenny Duncalf 11/3, 11/8, 11/9

Nicol David beat Alison Waters 11/3, 11/7, 11/5

For photos of the event, please go here.

There will be live scoring and blogging as well. So stay tuned folks!!

KL Open 2010

I'm live and running in Berjaya Times Square and awaiting the 1st match. Scores are now live courtesy of Squashstars.

Below are the full results:

Men

Ramy Ashour beat Amir Atlas Khan 12/14, 11/3, 11/6, 11/6

Ong Beng Hee beat El Shorbagy 7/11, 8/11, 16/14, 11/4, 11/8

Azlan Iskandar beat Stewart Boswell 11/1, 11/8, 11/5

Karim Darwish beat Cameron Pilley 11/7, 11/7, 11/9

Women

Nicol David beat Kasey Brown 12/10, 14/12, 11/1

Alison Waters beat Samantha Teran 11/5, 11/2, 8/11, 11/13, 12/10

Omneya Abdel Kawy beat Madeline Perry 12/10, 7/11, 11/5, 11/7

Jenny Duncalf beat Laura Massaro 11/7, 4/11, 10/12, 10/11 retired due to injury

It was an amazing day having 8 matches on the glass court one after another. And every match had some sort of drama or thrilling moments. Darwish and Pilley were on 1st and it was fast paced. Darwish showed why he was a former World Champion and world no. 1 when he clinically finished every good chance he had.

Jenny and Laura played 2nd with Laura having match ball but collided with Jenny and in the process twisted her ankle to concede the match. What wretched luck and according to the doctor that had the first look, she may be out for 4 weeks.

Azlan then took on Boswell and Azlan was on fire. He was very quick out of the blocks and attacked everything that was short and Boswell had practically no answer except the middle part of the 2nd game where he slowed the pace down a little and sucked Azlan into it. But Azlan stepped up and closed it.

Kawy vs Perry was either winners or errors from both players in the first 2 games. Kawy then showed what great hands she has to just keep hitting winner after winner. Perry tried her best but always looked 2nd best here.

Beng Hee and Shorbagy was the longest match of the day and I was nail biting especially when Shorbagy took the 1st easily due to Beng Hee being very loose and reckless. But he tighten up and led the 2nd 8-4 but then lost 7 points in a row to lose it. The 3rd was the same as teh 2nd where Beng Hee built a lead and almost lost it. He somehow managed to squeezed it at the end. After that he was always in front and duly created an upset he deserved.

Waters was 2-0 up against Teran in like 10-12 minutes and we were expecting a very quick one. Teran was full of nerves and it showed. After managing to composed herself, she then managed to put Waters under pressure and was unlucky to lose 12/10 in the 5th.

Ramy and Amir was something of a repeat of their junior days. Amir got off to a great start while Ramy looked sluggish and duly lost that 14/12. He then showed why he's the best player in the world at the moment by stepping up a gear and was 9-0 up before Amir got his 1st point. Ramy the repeated it in the next 2 to wrap it up in about 30 mins. Ramy has incredible speed, great accuracy on the drops and can create shots out of nothing.

Everyone thought Nicol would walk all over Kasey but it wasn't. Kasey gave a performance that suggest that she may trouble our queen in the near future if she is able to continue the progress. Kasey just was out of air and a little dejected for not being able to close out the first 2 games.

KL Open 2010

We had some fantastic matches today and Ivan and Delia almost had wins of their lives. Azlan made an upset by beating Adrian Grant 3-0 while Samantha Teran beat former world no.1 Vanessa Atkinson 3-1 to advance to the quarterfinals. Beng Hee as expected had a difficult time against former top 20 player, Mohammad Abbas. Below are the full results.

Men

Ramy Ashour beat Mohd. Nafiizwan 11/7, 11/9, 11/7 35 min

Amir Atlas Khan vs Omar Abdel Aziz 9/11, 11/9, 12/10, 11/9 52 min

Mohamed El Shorbagy beat Ivan Yuen 11/5, 8/11, 13/11, 13/11 55 min

Ong Beng Hee beat Mohammad Abbas 11/8, 11/9, 3/11, 11/8 56 min

Stuart Boswell beat Muhd. Asyraf Azan 11/4, 11/8, 11/5 29 min

Mohd. Azlan Iskandar beat Adrian Grant 11/4, 11/4, 11/9 40 min

Cameron Pilley beat Jonathan Kemp 11/7, 11/5, 11/7 31 min

Karim Darwish beat Ali Anwar Reda 11/6, 11/9, 11/0 36 min

Women

Nicol David beat Jaclyn Hawkes 11/7, 11/8, 11/2 37 min

Kasey Brown beat Sarah Kippax 11/6, 11/4, 11/5 33 min

Alison Waters beat Delia Arnold 7/11, 14/16, 11/3, 11/9, 11/9 75 min

Samantha Teran beat Vanessa Atkinson 13/11, 8/11, 11/9, 11/2 50 min

Madeline Perry beat Donna Urquhart 11/7, 6/11, 5/11, 11/6, 11/7 60 min

Omneya Abdel Kawy beat Rebecca Chiu 9/11, 11/4, 11/4, 11/3 30 min

Laura Massaro beat Raneem El Weleily 11/9, 11/1, 0/11, 12/14, 12/10 44 min

Jenny Duncalf beat Engy Kheirallah 11/4, 11/6, 11/7 27 min

KL Open 2010

Yesterday 10 Malaysians, 6 men and 4 women took part in the qualifying and only 2 men came through. They are Mohd. Nafiizwan and Ivan Yuen but in contrasting styles. Nafiizwan had an easy 21 minute match winning 3-0 while Ivan squandered a 2-0 lead to eventually win 3-2 in 70 minutes. Kamran Khan and Low Wee Wern came close losing in 5 games with Kamran having 2 matchballs in the 5th and Wee Wern having to lead 7-6 in the 5th. Both could not close out their matches.

Todays 2nd round qualifying line-up will be:

Women:

Sarah Kippax beat Annie Au 11/9, 11/9, 12/10 40 min

Rebecca Chiu beat Joey Chan 11/8, 5/11, 8/11, 11/4, 11/6 42 min

Donna Urquhart beat Tania Bailey 11/9, 13/11, 9/11, 7/11, 12/10 49 min

Raneem El Weleily beat Aisling Blake 11/6, 12/10, 11/4 27 min

Men:

Omar Abdel Aziz vs Chris Simpson 12/14, 11/1, 7/11, 11/5, 12/10 83 min

Mohammed Abbas beat Mark Krajcsak 11/4, 11/6, 11/2 42 min

Ivan Yuen beat Stephen Coppinger 7/11, 11/8, 11/2, 11/6 46 min

Mohd. Nafiizwan vs Amr Swelim 12/10, 12/10, 10/12, 11/7 74 min

I will try to do some live updates if possible.

KL Open 2010

Day One 15/3/10

Latest Update

Qualifying 1st Round

Women:

Annie Au beat Siti Munirah 11/9, 11/9, 11/6 27 min

Sarah Kippax beat Low Wee Wern 11/8, 5/11, 11/8, 6/11, 11/7 60 min

Rebecca Chiu beat Joshna Chinappa 11/9, 9/11, 11/9, 11/3 30 min

Joey Chan beat Lauren Briggs 12/10, 11/3, 11/6 26 min

Donna Urquhart beat Zulhijjah Azan 11/7, 11/5, 11/5 20 min

Tania Bailey beat Song Sun-Mi 11/5, 11/6, 11/7 32 min

Aisling Blake beat Sharon Wee 11/5, 11/8, 11/7 26 min

Raneem El Weleily beat Elise Ng 11/4, 11/5, 11/5 20 min

Men:

Amr Swelim beat Siddarth Suchde 11/8, 7/11, 9/11, 11/5, 11/5 76 min

Mohd. Nafiizwan beat Graeme Wilson 11/3, 11/6, 11/1 21 min

Stephen Coppinger beat Kamran Khan 11/4, 11/7, 8/11, 11/13, 13/11 77 min

Ivan Yuen beat Jorge Ferreira 13/11, 11/7, 8/11, 7/11, 11/3 70 min

Mohammad Abbas beat Leroy Leong 11/4, 11/1, 11/4 17 min

Mark Krajcsak beat Harinder Pal Sandhu 5/11, 11/7, 11/5, 11/6 52 min

Chris Simpson beat Elvinn Keo 11/8, 3/6, retired due to knee injury

Omar Abdel Aziz beat Choong Kam Hing 11/13, 11/1, 11/6, 11/8 32 min

Nicol David is Online!!

Last night I was at the launch of Nicol's brand spanking new website, www.nicoldavid.com. Only a few very close friends were invited together with her long time sponsors/partners. I was one of the fortunate few to be invited. Photos to come later but in the mean time, go check the site out!!

Cheers people!!

I'm Back and Kicking!!

I've been away from blogging for a bit due to my busy schedule but now I'm back. Been using that time away to figure out what else can I do to promote squash and I just got a great idea. This may be a weekly feature if time permit but it will be new for sure. Stay tune folks.

Happy squashing and cheers!