Yathreb Adel and Rowan Elaraby gate crash Macau main draw
By Alex Wan – Squash Mad Asian Bureau Editor
Egyptian youngsters Yathreb Adel and Rowan Elaraby ran riot over their more illustrious opponents from Hong Kong to gate crash into the main draw of the $50k Macau Squash Open. Yathreb Adel continued her giant killing run from yesterday with a hard fought four game win over Tong Tsz-Wing, while world junior champion Rowan Elaraby took out Liu Tsz-Ling in straight games.
In the other match featuring a Hong Kong player, qualifying top seed Rachael Grinham avenged her loss to Hong Kong’s Ho Tze Lok at the HKFC International two weeks ago with a convincing 3-0 score line.
Vanessa Chu was the only Hong Kong player who survived the afternoon after the 23 year old took four games to score an upset over the higher ranked Milou van der Haiden to earn a match against compatriot Joey Chan in the main draw.
Coincidently, all the qualifiers have been drawn to play fellow compatriots, Yathreb and Rowan to face top 2 seeds Raneem El Welily and Nouran Gohar, and Rachael to play lefty Donna Urquhart.
In the men’s, affairs went according to seeding once again. Qualifying top seeds Raphael Kendra and Mazen Gamal both dropping a game in their 3-1 wins over Spain’s Iker Pajares and Kiwi Evan Williams respectively. Raphael’s win earns him a berth against Malaysian Nafiizwan Adnan while Mazen will face Saurav Ghosal of India.
England’s Joshua Masters took out Hong Kong’s lefty Tang Ming Hong in just 24 minutes and will play top seed German Simon Rosner tomorrow.
In an all-Indian clash, Harinder Pal Sandhu beat his young compatriot 11-6, 11-6, 12-10 in 36 minutes and will play Egypt’s “Hammer of Thor” Omar Mosaad.
Qualifying Finals
Raphael Kendra (GER) bt Iker Pajares (ESP) 11-9, 7-11, 11-6, 11-7 (66m)
Harinder Pal Sandhu (IND) bt Abhay Singh (IND) 11-6, 11-6, 12-10 (35m)
Joshua Masters (ENG) bt Tang Ming Hong (HKG) 11-2, 11-2, 11-6 (24m)
Mazen Gamal (EGY) bt Evan Williams (AUS) 10-12, 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 (57m)
Rachael Grinham (AUS) bt Ho Tze Lok (HKG) 11-6, 11-3, 11-6 (35m)
Vanessa Chu (HKG) bt Milou van der Heijden (NED) 11-4, 6-11, 11-9, 11-6 (36m)
Rowan Elaraby (EGY) bt Liu Tsz-Ling (HKG) 11-9, 11-9, 11-6 (26m)
Yathreb Adel (EGY) bt Tong Tsz-Wing (HKG) 11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6 (41m)
Pictures by  Macau Squash Association