Thursday, April 25, 2024

WSA: El Sherbini’s shock win over Duncalf in KL

Jenny Duncalf makes an early exit in KL

Round one:

[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [Q] Donna Urquhart (AUS) 11-5, 11-5, 11-6 (35m)

[Q] Dipika Pallikal (IND) bt [8] Kasey Brown (AUS) 11-6, 11-7, 11-9 (40m)

[4] Madeline Perry (IRL) bt Camille Serme (FRA) 11-9, 11-1, 1-11, 12-10 (53m)

[5] Raneem El Weleily (EGY) bt Low Wee Wern (MAS) 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 (30m)

Annie Au (HKG) bt [7] Natalie Grinham (NED) 11-9, 12-14, 11-6, 11-6 (55m)

[3] Laura Massaro (ENG) bt Samantha Teran (MEX) 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 (31m)

[6] Rachael Grinham (AUS) bt [Q] Heba El Torky (EGY) 8-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-5, 12-10 (88m)

[Q] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) bt [2] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) 12-10, 9-11, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9 (48m)

Three seeds are on their way home, but a teenage qualifier claims the biggest scalp in round one of the CIMB Nicol David KL Open 2012.
In the best win of her WSA career to date, 16-year-old Egyptian qualifier Nour El Sherbini got the better of world No2 Jenny Duncalf in five games.  The 48-minute match went back and forth between the pair, but the Englishwoman was always playing catch-up after losing the first game on the tiebreak.  Sherbini’s first round win guarantees the teenager a new highest ranking place in the forthcoming April WSA World Rankings.

Experienced No6 seed Rachael Grinham then faced qualifier Heba El Torky, also of Egypt.  Despite going 2-games down, the Australian fought back in a mammoth 88-minute game, winning a tie-break fifth game and booking her quarter-final place against the giant killer Sherbini.

The younger Grinham sister, Natalie fell foul to unseeded Annie Au of Hong Kong in a four-game battle lasting just under an hour.  Au will go on to face No3 seed Laura Massaro, following the Englishwoman’s comfortable 3-0 win over Samantha Teran of Mexico.

Young Egyptian Raneem El Weleily took half an hour to dispatch home-hope Low Wee Wern in three games, to set up the most exciting of tomorrow’s quarter-final matches.  The No5 seed will go head-to-head with fourth seed and last year’s runner-up Madeline Perry, following the Irishwoman’s 3-1 win over Camille Serme of France.

The last qualifier to make it through to the quarters was Dipika Pallikal of India.  Pallikal got the better of No8 seed Kasey Brown of Australia in three games, making it the Indian international’s biggest WSA World Tour win to date.

Pallikal will progress to face the top seed and six-time World Champion Nicol David, as the Malaysian looks set to defend her previous KL Open win.  The home favourite will also be hoping to be the first to claim the title since the competition’s upgrade to World Series Gold classification in February, when David’s name was also incorporated into the event. The top seeded Malaysian beat Australian qualifier Donna Urquhart to three games in 35-minutes.

Quarter-final draw:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) v [Q] Dipika Pallikal (IND)
[4] Madeline Perry (IRL) v [5] Raneem El Weleily (EGY)
[3] Laura Massaro (ENG) v Annie Au (HKG)
[Q] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) v [6] Rachael Grinham (AUS)

 

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