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25-Jan, Round One:
Americans out as seeds advance
Charlie Johnson reports
One of the few 5-Star PSA tournaments with two American players
began play tonight, Julian Illingworth & Rob McFadzean, in the main
draw.
They didn't advance to tomorrow's quarter-final round but both
showed that American squash is advancing in many different ways and
areas. Rob coaches here in Dayton Ohio and has had a great presence
in our squash community, and Illingworth, currently the # 1 US
player and the highest ranking American born touring professional,
hails from Portland, spent four years at Yale playing college squash
and is the first American male to win a medal (Silver) in the Pan-Am
Games (2007) for squash.
Although the US is making strides, clearly Egyptian squash has it
going over there as three of the eight winners tonight hail from
Egypt and two Egyptian qualifiers who lost, played well and showed
that there is depth in Egyptian squash.
Tomorrow's Quarter Final action should present some excellent
matches that will no doubt entertain the 200+ people who will be on
hand both to spectator and play in the corresponding amateur squash
tournament: a treat for both amateur and professionals to be playing
side by side in the same club.
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Dayton Daily News
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Charlie's Match
Notes ... |
Palmer bt Balbo 3/1:
 Although
Balbo fought hard, Palmer was just too strong and dominated most of
the rallies.
Questioned after the match, Palmer said he liked the solid feel of
our ASB courts and this was evident as he thrashed quite a few kill
shots into the nick. |
Pilley bt Momen 3/1:
One of the longer matches in the opening round, Pilley dropped the
1st game to the quick and tenacious Momen in a tie breaker. The 2nd
game saw and lot of even rallies with Tarek's quick attacking style
occasionally catching Cameron off guard: but at 7-all, Pilley had
had enough and closed the game out.
Gaining the momentum Cameron won the 3rd game easily. Tarek showed
tenacity beyond his young years and quiet demeanour by fighting hard
in the 4th game but Cameron controlled the T and proved the old
squash adage that whoever's out front wins: he did. |
Darwish bt McFadzean 3/0:
McFadzean fought hard for the local crowd on hand to support him.
Darwish, the 2004 EBS Dayton Open Champion, seemed to be in top form
and unfortunately had warm-up on our local touring pro.
Teaching more than playing, Rob held his own for many rallies and
occasionally through in a wicked cross-court volley nick either to
show he still has it, or because he was knackered! |
Golan bt Kemp 3/0:
Golan played good solid squash and Kemp's attacking style was a bit off
tonight allowing Golan to win in 3 straight games. Up early in both
the first and 2nd games, Kemp started tinning shots in the front and
Golan took advantage of this. In the first game, down 2-5, he ran
off 9 straight to win it.
Down 2-4 again in the 2nd game, Golan stepped it up and forced Kemp
to try and make his shots too good: Kemp made more errors and lost
that game. Kemp once again got up to a 5-1 lead in the 3rd game, but
Golan regained control and once again, a few costly errors found
Kemp down 7-8 and then it was a battle to stay in the match for
Kemp: he fought hard but lost this battle. |
Abbas bt Illingworth 3/0:
Former EBS Dayton Open Finalist Abbas made quick work of American
Illingworth. Julian seemed tight from the beginning of the match and
Mohammed plays the ball so early and anticipates so well, that
Julian always seemed to be just one step late to play the ball:
leaving lots of loose shots that Mohammed exploited.
Abbas got off to quick leads in both of the 1st two games, making
them fairly easy wins, but Illingworth looked like he was going to
dig down deep in game 3 when he stared up 2-0 before Abbas took the
wind out of his sails by correctly reading a cross court drive &
cutting in off for a length winner that happened in the blink of an
eye. Illingworth knew from that point on that he was playing in a
different league and hopefully for US squash, he rises to the task. |
Tuominen bt El Halaby 3/2:
In the longest match of the niight, Tuominen outlasted El Hallaby in
a match that had 3 tiebreakers and some incredible rallies. Olli,
who had lost to qualifier Illlingworth in NY's TOC, decided not to
let it happen again and fought hard for the win and to keep his spot
in the draw.
The only seeded player tested in the first round, Olli won the crowd
over by his tenacious retrieving skills and both players' quality of
play was brilliant. |
Ashour bt Lavigne 3/1:
The brother of last year's champion (Ramy Ahsour) proved crowd
pleasing is in the family as he won a great match contested with
Renan Lavigne.
With contrasting styles of play, all but the last game was closely
contested. |
Lincou bt Galvez 3/0:
 Although
Galvez (last year a qualifier in this event) has risen in the world
rankings, Lincou had too much game for him tonight and dispatched
him with efficient play.
We expect a good tournament for Lincou as he hopes to repeat his
2003 performance as champion. |
 Dayton Open 2008
Ohio Usa, 23-28 Jan, $50k |
Round One
25 Jan |
Quarters
26 Jan |
Semis
27 Jan |
Final
28 Jan |
[1] David Palmer
(Aus)
11/4, 11/5, 11/6 (39m)
[Q] Julien Balbo (Fra) |
[1] David Palmer
16.00
[7] Cameron Pilley |
14.00 |
19.00 |
[7] Cameron Pilley
(Aus)
10/12, 11/7, 11/3, 11/9 (52m)
[Q] Tarek Momen (Egy) |
[3] Karim Darwish (Egy)
11/6, 11/2, 11/5 (35m)
Rob McFadzean (Usa) |
[3] Karim Darwish
16.00
[8] Borja Golan |
[8] Borja Golan (Esp)
11/5, 11/2, 12/10 (45m)
Jonathan Kemp (Eng) |
Renan Lavigne (Fra)
11/7, 8/11, 11/9, 11/5 (44m)
[6] Hisham Ashour (Egy) |
[6] Hisham Ashour
17.00
[4] Mohammed Abbas |
14.00 |
[Q] Julian Illingworth
(Usa)
11/6, 11/2, 11/5 (32m)
[4] Mohammed Abbas (Egy) |
[Q] Yasser El Halaby (Egy)
10/12, 5/11, 12/10, 11/6, 13/11 (57m)
[5] Olli Tuominen (Fin) |
[5] Olli Tuominen
17.00
[2] Thierry Lincou |
Eric Galvez (Mex)
11/4, 11/7, 11/4 (35m)
[2] Thierry Lincou (Fra) |
 24-Jan,
Qualifying Finals:
Tarek Momen (Egy) bt Chris Ryder (Eng)
9/11, 11/4, 11/6, 11/6 (36m)
Julien Balbo (Fra) bt David Phillips (Can)
7/0 rtd
Yasser El Halaby (Egy) bt Simon Rosner (Ger)
14/12, 7/11, 11/7, 11/7 (48m)
Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Robin Clarke (Can)
11/6, 11/9, 11/7 (48m)
23-Jan, Qualifying round one:
Chris Ryder (Eng) bt Ryan Cuskelly (Aus)
11/8, 11/3, 11/5 (48m)
Tarek Momen (Egy) bt Jamie Crombie (Usa)
11/2, 11/7, 11/5 (21m)
David Phillips (Can) bt Josh Greenfield (Nzl)
8/11, 11/2, 11/5, 11/3 (41m)
Julien Balbo ( Fra) bt Patrick Chifunda (Zam)
12/10, 11/9, 4/11, 11/5 (54m)
Yasser El Halaby (Egy) bt Siddarth Suchde (Ind) 11/9,
11/2, 11/7 (31)
Simon Rosner (Ger) bt Adil Maqbool (Pak)
11/6, 11/8, 11/3 (29m)
Robin Clarke (Can) bt Tony James (Aus)
11/7, 11/9, 11/9 (42)
Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Lefika Regontse (Bot)
16/14, 9/11, 11/5, 11/4 (44)
2007 Event
2006 Event
2005 Event
2004 Event
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24-Jan, Qualifying finals:
Illingworth
makes main draw
Charlie Johnson reports
 Julian
Illingworth, current world ranking 43, tonight became the first
American born player to qualify for play in the main draw of the EBS
Dayton Open. He played strong squash tonight and beat a capable
opponent, Canadian Robin Clarke, in three straight games that took
48 minutes.
While our Dayton Squash Center touring pro Rob McFadzean is
now an American citizen (born in South Africa) and gets a spot
reserved in the main draw for local touring pros, Illingworth now
moves on to the main draw and face Egyptian Mohammed Abbas,
ranked 14th in the world and our # 4 seed tomorrow night at 7:00 pm
at the Dayton Squash Center.
 Abbas
is quite talented and has been in the top 20 consistently since his
2004 appearance in the finals of the EBS Dayton Open where he lost
to this year's # 3 seed, fellow Egyptian Karim Darwish.
Although Abbas should be the favourite in the match, Illingworth has
already scored a win this season over a top 20 player, Olli
Tuominen - ranked 17th and our 5th seed, in last week's first
round of New York's Tournament of Champions.
If Illingworth plays as strong and as focused as he did tonight, he
might have a chance to pull off another upset, right here in Dayton!
A tough call for the Dayton spectators, as Abbas has attended all 6
EBS Dayton Open events and is a favourite with all the locals.
In other qualifying results, Julien Balbo draws # 1 seed
David Palmer, Tarek Momen plays Cameron Pilley and Yasser
El Hallaby plays Tuominen.
With 128 Amateurs coming to Dayton tomorrow for the Revenge of
the Baby Boomers Squash Tournament, there will be lots of good
squash at the Dayton Squash Center: but none better than the PSA
match tomorrow at 6:00 PM when our own Rob McFadzean plays world # 8
(and 2004 EBS Champion) Karim Darwish of Egypt and the following
match at 7:00 when USA's Julian Illingworth plays Mohammed Abbas.
There won't be an empty seat in the gallery!
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Dayton Daily News
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23-Jan, Qualifying round one:
Illingworth Continues Strong Play
Charlie Johnson reports
Julian Illingworth, currently the highest ranked American on
the PSA World Tour (43, highest male ranking to date) won tonight
3-1 in an entertaining match against Botswana's Lefika Ragonstse
(ranked 218). Julian is the # 2 seed in the qualifying draw for this
$50,000 professional squash tournament and recently scored an upset
round over world # 17 Olli Tuominen in New York's Tournament of
Champions.
Lefika had great control of his shots and a wicked attacking boast
that seem to confuse the slow starting Illingworth. The large crowd
on hand was drawn to this match by Lefika's infectious energy: he
was really enjoying the match and smiling and happy whether points
or calls went his way or not. Dayton loved this.
At 10-5 up in the first game, Lefika seemed to realize he was poised
to win it and all of a sudden took a more serious attitude but tried
to end rallies too quickly and made two unforced tins to let
Illingworth gain some momentum and get back in it. Even though he
faced 8 game balls, Illingworth prevailed (16-14) as he read
Lefika's boasts and played points that evidenced his recent rise in
the rankings due to steady play.
Lefika returned to his energetic style of play in game two and again
at 10-5 up could have gotten tight but when talking to him after the
match, he remarked "yes I had the same feeling and thought about
playing serious again and trying to win the game, but I remembered
where that strategy got me last game......so, I just stuck with my
heart." He won it 11-9.
That was it, however for Lefika, as Julian's recent tour match
experience showed how he could bounce back and steadily take control
of rallies and wore his opponent down, winning 11-5, 11-4 in the
last two games.
The capacity crowd on hand also enjoyed several other quality
matches tonight (see draw with comments below)and Qualifying action
wraps up tomorrow evening when 4 players advance into the main draw.
Matches tomorrow are from 4-8 pm at the Dayton Squash Center, 3200
West Tech Road, Miamisburg, OH 45342 and this last qualifying round
is free and open to the public. The Center's phone # is 937-885-9701
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