It was the last sixteen round of both the men’s and women’s Delaware Investments U.S.Open championships at the Daskalakis Athletic Center at Drexel University in Philadelphia, with eight matches in a row – upstairs on the glass court for the men, and downstairs on the traditional court for the women.
There was a strong England v Egypt flavour to the men’s draw with fully half of the matches featuring one player from each nation, and honours were shared as Mohamed El Shorbagy, Nick Matthew, Peter Barker and Amr Shabana all progressed, as the seedings predicted they would. James Willstrop made it three Englishmen in the last eight as he beat compatriot Daryl Selby, and an English semi-finalist is assured with Willstrop set to meet Barker in the quarters while Matthew faces El Shorbagy.
In the bottom half of the draw Shabana will meet Dutchman LJ Anjema, who was delighted to upset the seedings in recording his first PSA victory over veteran Australian David Palmer, the eighth seed.
The remaining quarter-final will be between France’s sixth seed Thierry Lincou, who narrowly escaped being taken to five games by speedy Colombian Miguel Angel Rodrigues, and unseeded Malaysian Azlan Iskandar, who consolidated his win over injured second seed Karim Darwish yesterday with a straight-games win over Swiss qualifier Nicolas Mueller.
There was just one upset in the women’s draw as Hong Kong’s Annie Au eased past a struggling Omneya Abdel Kawy, the seventh seed from Egypt, but none of the remaining seven seeds had it all their own way.
In the opening match of the day France’s eighth-seeded Camille Serme had to battle back from two games down to US veteran Latasha Khan, while third seeded Australian Rachael Grinham also came from two games down and saved match balls in the process of beating in-form Egyptian Raneem El Weleily 14/12 in the fifth.
In the quarter-finals Au faces second seed Jenny Duncalf, who ended home interest with a straight-game defeat of Amanda Sobhy, while Grinham also meets English opposition in the form of Laura Massaro, who beat qualifier Delia Arnold after dropping the first game.
In the top half of the draw, Serme will play Ireland’s third seeded Madeline Perry, and top seed Nicol David meets Australia’sKasey Brown for the fifth time in little over a year.
Full details on the tournament website: www.usopensquash.com
Men’s Round Two :
[7] Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egy) bt Tom Richards (Eng) 11/2, 11/6, 8/11, 11/4 (53m)
[1] Nick Matthew (Eng) bt Omar Mosaad (Egy) 11/8, 11/3, 11/5 (49m)
[5] Peter Barker (Eng) bt Hisham Ashour (Egy) 11/9, 11/6, 11/4 (40m)
[3] James Willstrop (Eng) bt Daryl Selby (Eng) 11/7, 11/5, 11/6 (48m)
Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned) bt [8] David Palmer (Aus) 7/11, 11/5, 11/3, 11/9 (76m)
[4] Amr Shabana (Egy) bt Adrian Grant (Eng) 6/11, 11/6, 11/5, 11/7 (51m)
[6] Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Col) 7/11, 11/6, 11/4, 13/11 (69m)
Azlan Iskandar (Mas) bt [Q] Nicolas Mueller (Sui) 11/6, 11/7, 11/3 (42m)Women’s Round One:
[1] Nicol David (Mas) bt Joelle King (Nzl) 11/13, 11/8, 11/6, 11/5 (55m)
[6] Kasey Brown (Aus) bt [Q] Dipika Pallikal (Ind) 11/8, 11/8, 11/6 (44m)
[8] Camille Serme (Fra) bt Latasha Khan (Usa) 10/12, 3/11, 11/9, 11/7, 118 (67m)
[3] Madeline Perry (Irl) bt [Q] Donna Urquhart (Aus) 11/6, 13/11, 8/11, 11/5 (52m)
[4] Rachael Grinham (Aus) bt Raneem El Weleily (Egy) 8/11, 5/11, 11/9, 11/9, 14/12 (58m)
[5] Laura Massaro (Eng) bt [Q] Delia Arnold (Mas) 11/13, 11/4, 11/6, 11/4 (46m)
Annie Au (Hkg) bt [7] Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy) 11/1, 11/1, 11/3 (17m)
[2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) bt [Q] Amanda Sobhy (Usa) 12/10, 11/6, 11/5 (27m)
Full details on the tournament website: www.usopensquash.com