SquashTalk >Al Ahram, Giza, Egypt > Round One, First Day by Colin Mcquillan

Al Ahram
/Heliopolis 2001

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New Egyptians break through

by Colin McQuillan, Sept 5 2001

Ahmed Barada has chosen the Al Ahram International tournament that was created to celebrate his impact upon world squash as the occasion to make it clear that he is out of the game for good.

It is not entirely clear whether he has quit because he cannot fully recover from the knife wounds he received in a Cairo street a couple of years back; because he has fallen in love with a woman whose family want him to stay home and join their business; or because he is wants to become a film star instead. But it is clear that he is not around the squash scene even in Cairo any more.

Instead we have four other Egyptians through to the second round of the Al Ahram and about to take centre stage on the showcourt under the Great Pyramids of Giza in an attempt to show that they can go on without him.

UP AND COMING EGYPTIAN CONTINGENT
Omar El Borolosssy, who shared a world junior final with Barada back in 1994, steps up to take on the defending champion, Peter Nicol of England as the ex-Scot tries to put behind him the first round defeat inflicted upon him in Hong Kong by Thierry Lincou of France and the demotion last week to world number three for the first time in more than three years.

Mohamed Abbas, a youngster who put out Del Harris of England in straight games today, takes on the Asian Champion,Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia.

Karim Darwish, the reigning world junior champion, who took just 33 minutes to dismisss the fifth seeded Welshman, David Evans, 15-13 15-4 15-10, goes on to meet Stewart Boswell of Australia,

Amr Shabana, who for the second successive tournament leapfrogged into the main draw courtesy of Barada's late withdrawal, put out Alex Gough of Wales 15-9 6-15 15-6 15-11 in 58 minutes to face Scotland's Martin Heath. Heath has been a finalist in this tournament in the past but in the first round he took 105 minutes to rid the tournament of Anthony Hill, the fractious Aussie who is these days mostly a qualifying contestant, and he might find the inspired Shabana a bit of a handful in front of an Egyptian crowd at the Pyramids.

David Palmer of Australia, the new world number one and a finalist in the last five major tournaments, plays Paul Johnson in the second round; John White of Scotland plays Chris Walker and Paul Price of Australia plays Mark Chaloner; all of which is a bit likem taking on the ageing England team.

SECOND ROUND INCANDESCENCE
But the real interest of the day apart from home hopes is the confrontation between Jonathon Power and Thierry Lincou. British National Champion Lee Beachill went down 13-15 15-9 15-7 15-6 in 62 minutes to Lincou, the 25-year-old Frenchman who surprised Nicol and went on to the Hong Kong final, won the Milo Challenge in Johannesburg last week and arrived in Cairo as the new world number eight, although he did not rate a seeding place after four months out of the game with a broken hand.

Those who understand such things suggest Lincou would have been world number four had the South African win been taken into account. Tomorrow he has the chance to complete his triple comeback ambition. In Hong Kong he reached a major final for the first time and beat Peter Nicol.

POWER RED EYED
Power is his third comeback target, and it has to be said that the Canadian looked pretty red in the eye after beating another Frenchman, qualifier Renan Lavigne, 15-10 15-10 15-10. Nicol by comparison looked fairly efficient dealing with Australia's Joe Kneipp 17-15 15-10 15-12 in 54 minutes.. Kneipp conspired in his own downfall by so mismanaging his travel arrangements from Johannesburg that he arrived only an hour before he was due on the centre court of the National Squash Stadium in Cairo against the top seeded defending champion.

KNEIPP VIA HARARE
"It was just hell getting out of Johannesburg over the weekend," Kneipp said as he arrived. "I thought I had talked my way onto yesterday's flight but was stopped when the new shift arrived on the departure desk. I heard later that the girl I was originally talking to had arranged to take someone off the flight to get me on, but she was over-ruled by the new shift manager. I got on the 8.30am flight today only to find it was stopping at Harare on the way. "I said jokingly on the way in that I was probably down for a Noon match against the top seed. Little did I know that was exactly the case."

Nicol wavered slightly after leading 14-10 in the opening game but cleaned up with increasing confidence. Now we will see what he can do with the man who has become the senior Egyptian with much to gain from a good win in front of his home crowd. Al Ahram International Squash Championship In Cairo,

Egypt First Round Results:
Peter Nicol (Eng) bt Joe Kneipp (Aus) 17-15 15-10 15-12
Omar El Borolossy (Egy) bt Mohamed Essam (Egy) 15-4 15-4 15-13
Ong Beng Hee (Mal) bt Davide Bianchetti (Ital) 15-13 13-15 15-13 14-15 15-7 Mohammed Abbas (Egy) bt Del Harris (Eng) 15-7 15-10 15-5
David Palmer (Aus) bt Wael El Hindi (Egy) 15-8 15-12 13-15 15-9
Paul Johnson(Eng) bt Mika Monto (Fin) 15-7 15-11 15-7
John White (Scot) bt Mohamed Medhat (Egy) 10-15 15-10 15-5 17-14
Chris Walker (Eng) bt Anthony Ricketts (Aus) 17-16 13-15 15-13 17-16
Stewart Boswell (Aus) bt Nick Matthew (Eng) 15-13 15-6 15-6
Karim Darwish (Egy) bt David Evans (Wal) 15-13 15-4 15-10
Mark Chaloner (Eng) bt Nick Taylor (Eng) 15-12 15-6 15-7
Paul Price (Aus) bt John Williams (Aus) 15-6 15-7 17-16
Amr Shabana (Egy) bt Alex Gough (Wal) 15-9 6-15 15-6 15-11
Martin Heath (Scot) bt Anthony Hill (Aus) 15-14 15-12 3-15 13-15 15-12
Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Lee Beachill (Eng) 13-15 15-9 15-7 15-6
Jonathon Power (Can) bt Renan Lavigne (Fra) 15-10 15-10 15-10

[Complete results on draw page]

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