Robin Clarke Wins in Five in Hometown

Ryan Cuskelly advanced to the main draw (photo:©2006 AIS)

Tonight’s 1st match was the 1st upset of the night with Canadian David Phillips beating France’s Mathieu Castagnet by 3/0.  David struck the ball superbly tonight controlling the match right from the start.  He hit his short straight shots with such precision, many hit for outright winners causing a lot of frustration for Mathieu.  David did not let up with his pressure & comfortably won all 3 games.

The 2nd match between Australian Ryan Cuskelly & New Zealander Martin Knight was a fast paced & tenacious affair with Ryan coming out on top, 3/1.

The 3rd match featured hometown boy, Robin Clarke vs England’s Dave Barnett.  Dave upset Wade Johnston the previous evening so went into this match the slight favourite!  Robin got out to a fast start finishing both the 1st & 2nd games strong.   Dave turned things around in the 3rd & 4th by dominating the mid court to tie the match 2-2.  In the 5th Robin got back to playing a lot more straight & taking the ball into the front court short & straight.  Dave made more errors off the straight balls & coupled with Robin using the straight short balls to better effect, Robin won the 5th comfortably 11-4. 

The final match, again considered an upset saw Australian Scott Arnold beat Canada’s Ian Power relatively easily, 3/1  after dropping the first game.

Results, Goodlife Open, Final Qualifying:
David Phillips (CAN) beat Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) 11-6,11-7,11-6 in 52 min
Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) beat Martin Knight (NZ) 3-11, 11-6, 11-5,11-9 in 62 min
Robin Clarke (CAN) beat Dave Barnett(ENG) 11-9,11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 11-4 in 72 min
Scott Arnold (AUS) beat Ian Power (CAN) 8-11,11-9,11-5,11-3 in 34 min

The qualifiers slot in to the main draw as follows: [SEE COMPLETE DRAW]

Robin Clarke (Can) vs Nicholas Kyme (Ber)
Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) vs Jesse Engelbrecht (Zim)
Scott Arnold (Aus) vs Steve Finitsis (Aus)
David Phillips(Can) vs Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Col)