Nour El Tayeb and Habiba Mohamed take out Laura Massaro and Jenny Duncalf
By ALEX WAN – Squash Mad Malaysian Correspondent in Kuala Lumpur (August 20, 2014)
Of the seven World Junior Champions who played today, five will move on to the quarter finals.
Leading the pack is Nicol David, who has been on fiery form since crashing out of her home World Championships in March. She continued her fine run with a straight games win over India’s Joshna Chinappa in just over half an hour.
Raneem El Welily, who like Nicol, a double world junior champion, booked her place for tomorrow at the expense of Hong Kong’s Joey Chan. After being outclassed in the first game, Joey got her act together, but the higher ranked Egyptian managed to squeeze through in both the remaining games.
But the day truly belonged to the pair of most recent World Junior Champions.
Nour El Tayeb (right), the 2011 World Junior Champion stunned current World Champion Laura Massaro in one of the earlier matches.
This was followed by Habiba Mohamed, who continued her giant killing run by taking out England’s Jenny Duncalf, who partnered Laura to a Commonwealth Games silver medal men’s recently.
At the rate these young Egyptians are going, they could probably send the junior women’s team to Canada this December for the Women’s World Teams, and still do very well.
After the biggest win of her career, there was no swan song for Delia Arnold tonight, losing in straight games to 2010 World Junior Champion Amanda Sohby.
The Malaysian blew a 10-8 in the first and led again 9-6 in the second, but she just couldn’t find the finishing touches. Delia, who has been making headlines with her bright pink compression socks, heads to Hong Kong next to play in the qualifiers that begins on Sunday.
Sarah-Jane Perry (right) will keep the English flag flying for another day, after she produced yet another upset of the day, beating local darling Low Wee Wern in the longest women’s match of the evening in four games.
The win takes her to her second consecutive Malaysian Open quarter final and avenges he defeat to Wee Wern at the Texas Open earlier this year.
“I felt like I started like a train,” said the 24-year-old Perry, from Kenilworth. “It was a great start then she came back in the third and I didn’t do so well there.
“After that it was up and down just like the scores suggest. I guess it’s a bit of a revenge since she beat me in the Texas Open this year. I also realised that I was the last English girl and that gave me a little motivation.”
In the other matches, Annie Au of Hong Kong beat Omneya Abdel Kawy in three, while Madeline Perry won the battle of the veterans, but not before being stretched to the limit by Rachael Grinham.
In the men’s competition, the top two seeds advanced in contrasting fashion. Mohamed El Shorbagy took just 19 minutes to see off Kuwaiti Abdullah Al Mezayen, while Spanish Borja Golan was stretched for nearly an hour by another Egyptian, Mohamed Abouelghar.
Local participation will be left on the shoulders of Nafiizwan Adnan, who was leading 2-1 before Azlan Iskandar (sexy socks, right) retired. It could well be a precautionary measure for the former world number 10, who is preparing for the Asian Games.
The other two local men both played over 90 minutes of squash each, only to come out defeated. Manesh Mangaonkar of India, who has since become more famous since his infamous tweet at the Commonwealth Games, stopped Malaysian veteran Ong Beng Hee, winning 12-10 in the fifth. Ivan Yuen, meanwhile was taken out by Finland’s Olli Tuominen.
Egyptian pair Karim Abdel Gawad and 2012 winner Tarek Momen both won to complete the lineup for tomorrow’s quarter finals.
Women’s CIMB Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2nd round:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [14] Joshana Chinappa (IND) 11-4, 11-3, 11-8 (32m)
[7] Annie Au (HKG) bt [9] Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY) 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 (31m)
[3] Raneem El Welily (EGY) bt [15] Joey Chan (HKG) 11-2, 11-9, 11-8 (21m)
[13] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) bt [6] Low Wee Wern (MAS) 11-3, 13-11, 9-11, 11-9 (77m)
[10] Amanda Sobhy (USA) bt Delia Arnold (MAS) 14-12, 11-9, 11-5 (23m)
[Q] Habiba Mohamed Ahmed (EGY) bt [11] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) 11-7, 6-11, 11-9, 11-7 (51m)
[8] Madeline Perry (IRL) bt [12] Rachael Grinham (AUS) 10-12, 11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9 (41m)
[16] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) bt [2] Laura Massaro (ENG) 11-7, 11-4, 6-11, 11-4 (47m)
Quarter-final line-up:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) v [7] Annie Au (HKG)
[3] Raneem El Welily (EGY) v [13] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
[Q] Habiba Mohamed Ahmed (EGY) v [10] Amanda Sobhy (USA)
[16] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) v [8] Madeline Perry (IRL)
Picture by KNG ZHENG GUAN