Colin McQuillan reports for SquashTalk from Hong Kong, Aug 25, 1999 [see also McQuillan's Report 1: Haddrell and Hill shine on Day One (8.24.99)] FROM McQUILLAN'S NOTEBOOK... Who'd be a world champion? © Colin McQuillan and Squashtalk, all rights reserved. Today's second opening round session of the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open Squash Championship was no place for World Champions. JONATHON'S RED-EYE Canada's Jonathon Power, the reigning World Champion, got through against England's Nick Taylor 15-12 13-15 15-11 15-3. but it was 65 minutes of obvious discomfort that left him red-eyed and dispirited, and knowing there is worse to come. STEWART BOSWELL'S NERVE Australia's Rodney Eyles, the former incumbent, went down 15-13 9-15 17-16 17-15 to the youngest Australian on the tour, 21 year old Stewart Boswell, who spent 78 minutes showing what a difference ten years can make on the squash court .. even winning the duel in Eyles' favourite top left-hand corner and taking match ball with an unanswerable backhand volley drop. Boswell, who was a finalist in the 1996 World Junior Championship, has taken some time to emerge as a senior player, but a spell on the South American circuit last year, with wins in Columbia and Peru, and a good victory over experienced opposition in this year's Bolzano Open in Italy appear to have hardened him. Eyles,3l-year-old veteran with nearly two-decades-worth of tricks up his sleeve, cut his way back into the match taking the second game and hold 13-9 in the third. But he could not push the youngster aside. Well refereed by former Singapore international Peter Hill, the match went to the wire in each of the last two games with the more experienced man blinking first in each case. UNTIMELY ERRORS FROM EYLES Eyles hit a tempting forehand overhead smash into the tin at 16-16 in the third game and, after holding a 10-7 lead in the fourth, was reduced to flinging himself shouting after the ball as Boswell took him into a tie break with a measured forehand for 14-14, and made two crucial errors (interference and a tinned backhand volley) before setting himself up to be executed with his own greatest shot, the backhand volley drop, Boswell is in line to cap the performance tomorrow. The win puts him against Power in the second round and, unless the Canadian can raise himself from today's less than fluent level of performance, the young Australian could find himself holding a brace of world champion scalps on his way home from Hong Kong, POWER'S ROAD AHEAD Even if he gets past Boswell, however, Power's troubles are far from over in defense of this title. Simon Parke, the England number two who defeated Power twice in a week in the recent England-versus-the-rest-of-the-World series, should be his quarterfinal opponent on Friday. "I have had a really lazy summer after getting married and I have still to shake the jetlag that comes from a 12 hour flight here,"' Power said today, "I am trying the old Jansher Khan trick of hoping to work myself back into match sharpness in the course of the tournament. If it doesn't work, it will be back to Toronto to apply the magic training system before the World Open in Cairo next month. OTHER ACTION Parke brushed aside the local wild card entry, Faheem Khan, in less than half-an-hour today, saying afterwards that he was glad to save the energy for the World Champion. First the Englishman has to deal with Australia's Paul Price. Whom he has never played before, but he looked hungry enough today to eat up an untried dish without stopping. In the opposing quarter of the draw another Canadian, Graham Ryding, came through to meet Belgium's Stefan Casteleyn in the second round, while British Champion Paul Johnson reached a second round encounter with John White, the tall big-hitter from Alligator Creek in Queensland, Australia, who now plays under Scottish registration, FORECAST FOR TOMORROW The real Scotsmen are also action again tomorrow with second seeded Peter Nicol playing England's Chris Walker, and Martin Heath up against Alex Gough of Wales. There is an all-Australian brawl scheduled between 'Bad Boy' Anthony Hill and 'Mad Billy' Haddrell, and an Anglo-Egyptian affair between Mark Chaloner and Ahmed Barada. BARADA'S SIMPLE PLAN Barada, incidentally, tells me he intends to win the Hong Kong Open as a prelude to taking the world crown in front of his home crowd in Cairo next month, Makes you wish he was in the top half of the draw with Stewart Boswell scheduled into his quarterfinal, [ Back to Cathay Pacific Open 99 Main Tournament Page]