Malaysian Open 2009

Qualifying 1st Round
We had 5 men and 5 women in the qualifying and this time we hoped that someone could come through and make it to the main event. Sadly, all of them were out by the end of the day. Wan came the closes, losing to Simon Rosner in 5 and had his fair share of chances to win it. Jam, Elvinn, Kam Hing and Kamran all lost in 3. Not the best result but performance was way better than the result except for Elvinn.

The girls were also the same, Wee Wern going to 4 with Camille while Sharon, Siti, Yoke Wah and Pushppa all lost in 3. Interesting part is that Sharon has not qualified for a Gold event for about 3 years now if my memory serves me right minus the wildcards that is. Yoke Wah and Siti had decent games and showed that they could play if they really wanted to.

That means we only have Azlan, Beng Hee and Nicol in the main event through merit with Delia and Asyraf through the wildcards.


1st Round Main Draw
With Beng Hee taking on Asyraf, we were assured of one Malaysian in the quarters which Beng Hee duly did his job. But credit to Asyraf, he did make it tough for Beng Hee, especially in the 2nd game. This was indeed the best performance by Asyraf ever that I had seen, fully focused and disciplined in his attitude and shot selection. If he can keep this up, he will be a very difficult player to beat in the future.

Azlan didn't have the easiest of draws but with his great performance in the recent World Games, he should be able to pull through. His opponent was Omar Mossad who took him to 5 earlier this year in the 2 star event in KL. Azlan started off well winning the 1st but didn't look sharp at all. Mossad won the 2nd and Azlan was looking lost and dejected. Something was wrong and Mossad won the 3rd 11-1!. Checking with Azlan between games, he said his leg was in pain and could not move properly. But that didn't syop him from giving his all and he was 9-3 up in the 4th thanks to some errors by an impatient Omar. Slowly but surely, Omar tightened his game and closed it out 11-9 to seal the match. Very hard luck to Azlan who has put in a lot of work in the last 3-4 months to be in good condition.

Delia was up against Natalie Grinham and was outclassed in the first 2 games. She did however managed to put a good show in the 3rd but still the gulf in class was too great to create an upset.

Nicol on paper had a very tough 1st round match against the former world number 1 and world champion, Vanessa Atkinson. But Vanessa is not the same as she was a few years back and Nicol comfortably won in straight games.

One upset in the women's side was Kasey Brown beating Omneya Kawy in straight games.

Quarterfinal matches will be played at the Curve, Mutiara Damansara from 2 pm till about 10pm.


The other reports and results can be viewed at Squashsite. Cheers and happy squashing.