Men's Hyder Trophy 1st Round:
[draw/results]
June 5, 2004, By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004

Odeh Cousins Win First Round Tests in NYC

In the remaining first-round matches, fourth seed Clive Leach handily out-played Ben Desombre, the head pro of the host Sports Club/LA on Manhattan's upper east side, winning in three single-figure games, but Richard Chin had considerably more difficulty before finally edging out young Ben Oliner by a score of 17-14 15-7 13-15 15-10. Chin, Oliner and Patterson had all played in the U. S. team trials tournament just last weekend at nearby Westchester Squash, as did second seed Damian Walker, who along with top seed Mark Heather and No. 3 Daniel Sharplin has been byed to the quarters of this 13-man draw and hence will play his first match later this morning.

Finally, Jonny Smith responded to a lost second-game tiebreaker by taking over in the last two games of his 15-12 15-17 15-9 15-6 win over Eric Christiansen, thereby gaining the right to oppose Mark Heather this morning in the first pro match of the day. That will be followed by Leach vs. Chin, Sharplin vs Francis Odeh and Walker vs. Jude Odeh. The semi-finals will begin at 6:45 this evening and the final is set for 3:45 Sunday afternoon.

Karim Yehia and Patrick Chifunda had originally planned to play in this event, which had been scheduled for Mother's Day weekend last month. But only the WISPA women's pro event (won by Shelley Kitchen in an exciting comeback 3-2 win from two games to love down against Fiona Geaves) took place that weekend due to the decision on the part of the MSRA Board to postpone the men's pro tournament and amateur flights these four weeks to allow the sparsely-subscribed amateur events to fill up. This re-scheduled Hyder tourney conflicts with a small PSA event in Irvine, CA, the Hi-Tec Orange County Open, where Yehia and Chifunda are the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds respectively, and successfully advanced to the finals there.

Round Of 16:
Mark Heather bye;
Jonny Smith d Eric Christiansen, 15-12 15-17 15-9 15-6
Richard Chin d Ben Oliner, 17-14 15-7 13-15 15-10
Clive Leach d Ben Desombre, 15-6 15-3 15-4;
Daniel Sharplin bye;
Francis Odeh d Steve Scharff, 15-12 15-9 10-15 17-15
Jude Odeh d Dylan Patterson, 11-15 15-6 17-16 15-9
Damian Walker bye.

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