China Open 2008

Today 17/10/08
Squashsite has updated the results of the tournament. Click here.
Today we had the 1st round in the morning and quarterfinals in the evening. I don't have all the scores but I have the semifinals line up. They are:

Men
Stephane Galifi (Fra) vs Romain Tenant (Fra)
Max Lee (HK) vs David Vidal (Esp)

Women
Christina Mak (HK) vs Heba El Torky
Deon Saffery (Wales) vs Nouran El Torky

I tried to get the updated scores from the organizers but I could not. Then I tried Squashsite but they too have not been updated. Even the PSA and Wispa sites are not updated. So bear with me on this.

Below are pictures from today. Enjoy and cheers.

Womens Draw

Men's Draw

Official T-Shirt Design

Official T-Shirt Design

Group Photo

Heba El Torky (left) and Nouran El Torky of Egypt

Deon Saffery of Wales

David Vidal of Spain

Matteo Amadei a.k.a Meng Xiaomin of China

Yesterday (16/10/08)



Today is the actual start of the event. I did not manage to get the qualifying results but hopefully tomorrow. In the mean time, enjoy the pictures.








This is Franco Amadei who is the Tournament Referee. He speaks fluent Mandarin, English and his very own Italian Language. He is also Matteo's dad.







On the left is Kam Hing and on the right is Elvinn. Both are from Malaysia. Kam Hing is from Perak and Elvinn from Penang








This funny fellow is Stephane Galifi. He's French but is in the process of trying to play for Italy. His family is from Sicily, Italy. One cool dude and one heck of a squash player.







This is Alex Ingham from England. He spent the last month in Egypt for some training. He's shorter than me... Wohooo!!!








These referees and markers were having a busy day. They come from Shangai, Hangzhou (2 hours by train) and Beijing to assist and contribute to the success of the event.







These boys are from Egypt and are super nice. They promised to take me around Cairo and so on when I go there for the World Women's Team Championship in December







Come back tomorrow for more pictures and hopefully the results of the 1st round. Cheers..



(15/10/08)

This was part of the crowd that was there today.

This is the organizing group that is responsible for the tournament. Most of the pro players arrived today and qualifying starts tomorrow. Will update this post daily with reports and pictures. Come back soon. Cheers.

Long Time No See

Here are some updated photos. The following are scenic views from Matteo's apartment which is on the 31st floor. Enjoy.










Been a long time sine my last post. Come back regularly to check my update on the OCM survey which will be done soon. In the meantime, let me show you a little of my life in Shanghai. Enjoy the pictures.


Shanghai Tower


Nite View of the City




The Famous Xin Tian Dee (hope I got the spelling correct)




Day Time View





Matteo's House (Living Room)



Matteo's House (My room)




Will post more pictures soon. Cheers for now. Bye

It's All About The Money

Been very busy lately and will continue with part 3 of the 5 Star issue soon. But now the focus will be on Jamshed Gul, the so called coach that helped Beng Hee win the Malaysian Open recently. He is in the spotlight as his contract is up and it seems that they are not renewing it. Why is this so?

Well, like the title says, it's all about the money. According to my Deep Throats, Jamshed is asking for a 100% increment from his current salary and the NSC's maximum is 30%. If he got what he wanted, Jamshed would be close to about USD 4K plus minus excluding housing. Now that is a lot of money and the NSC has rejected it and even went as far as to say that SRAM has even more foreigners on their payroll compared to badminton.

In trying to justify his request, Jamshed dragged Beng Hee in the picture by getting him to support his extension. By dragging a player into his quest, Jamshed has angered NSC and SRAM in the process. This is another of his cheap tricks to get what he wants. Previously when he was appointed Head Coach of Malaysia, he used the contract he had to negotiate with Pakistan for a higher salary for a post there. And when he managed to get it, he jumped ship! And that was like a few months after signing an extension to his contract in Malaysia.

Jamshed also felt that he was insulted when a new and pretty inexperienced coach joined in with a salary very near his even though Jamshed was clearly much better. What the heck? Even I am much better but what do I get? Hmmm... Well, to Jamshed, I'll say take it of leave.

As far as I am concerned, good riddance to him. He claims Beng Hee benefited from him but Beng Hee is away for 8-10 months a year. So how much influence he has on his game? Jamshed also says Asyraf has improved under him as he made the 1st round of the KL and Malaysian Open this year. Well, Asyraf is a talented boy but Asyraf decides himself if he wants to play squash or not. He's like a dysfunctional genius... a head case. But who else can go into a 1st round in both those tournaments and end up with 11-0? The rest of the players that were assigned to him? Err... Sad to say, they have not made progress and they had nothing much to say about him.

So now we are one foreigner less but that leaves a huge number still. I am looking forward to the day where we Malaysian squashers can be proud of our achievements of producing Malaysian players made in Malaysia by Malaysians for Malaysians.


Cheers till next time.