Three seeds crash at Wimbledon
By DAVID HURST
The opening day of the Squash Squared Open main draw at the Wimbledon Club saw three of the eight seeds beaten.
A dancer’s agility and great coverage of the court from young (and always smiling) Egyptian international, Youseff Solimann, saw him beat number four seed, England’s Declan James. Quite a lot of player interference caused one lady spectator to observe amusingly, “there’s rather a lot of cuddling going on here!” Another long contest for Youseff takes his time on court in four matches so far to nearly four hours!
A hundred shot plus opening rally between sixth seed, Scotland’s Greg Lobban, and Germany’s Raphael Kandra hinted at a long game but tactics soon changed and both players started to go for their shots with Kandra emerging as the victor in three games.
But the TWC Match of the Day went to the contest between Weshman, Joel Makin, and the aggressive number three seed from Egypt, Zahed Mohamed. After Joel took a 2-0 lead, the Egyptian started to speed up the game and fought back to level it at 2-2. Perhaps he had given too much as in the final game Zahed left the court with cramp and could not fight all the way back as Joel took the final game after 84 minutes of combat.
Finalist in the 2015 Squash Squared tournament, Omar Meguid, fought a closely contested first game against number 1 seed, Daryl Selby, but lost that one 13-11 before Daryl ‘s consistency saw him win 3-0.
Local player and number 7 seed, Tom Richards, played a controlled and mature match against American qualifier, Todd Harrity, to win 3-0 while TWC team player, Ben Coleman, could not repeat his Canary Wharf Classic victory just two weeks ago against French international and always-good-to-watch, Mathieu Castagnet.
Number two seed, James Wilstrop, was clinical in his finishing and his impressive touch was still there as he beat qualifier, Chris Simpson 3-0 while fellow qualifier, Ritchie Fallows, carried a back injury from his earlier matches and withdrew against Lucas Serme halfway through the second game.
PSA M35 Men’s Squash Squared Wimbledon Club Open 2018, The Wimbledon Club, London, England.
First round:
[1] Daryl Selby (ENG) bt Omar Abdel Meguid (EGY) 13-11, 11-7, 11-9 (54m)
Raphael Kandra (GER) bt [6] Greg Lobban (SCO) 11-6, 13-11, 11-5 (49m)
[7] Tom Richards (ENG) bt [Q] Todd Harrity (USA) 11-8, 11-3, 11-5
Joel Makin (WAL) bt [3] Zahed Mohamed (EGY) 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 11-4 (84m)
[Q] Youssef Soliman (EGY) bt [4] Declan James (ENG) 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 11-1 (63m)
[5] Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) bt [WC] Ben Coleman (ENG) 11-3, 11-4, 12-10
[8] Lucas Serme (FRA) bt [Q] Richie Fallows (ENG) 11-9, 8-3 ret. (28m)
[2] James Willstrop (ENG) bt [Q] Chris Simpson (ENG) 11-6, 11-7, 11-4 (39m)
Quarter-finals:
[1] Daryl Selby (ENG) v Raphael Kandra (GER)
[7] Tom Richards (ENG) v Joel Makin (WAL)
[5] Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) v [Q] Youssef Soliman (EGY)
[2] James Willstrop (ENG) v [8] Lucas Serme (FRA)
Picture by KIM ROBERTS