The 2008 Kuwait Open kicked off at the KSF Squash Complex today with the first round of qualifying. Visa problems meant that top seed Mansoor Zaman was absent, Renan Lavigne and Joey Barrington received byes into tomorrow's qualifying finals, leaving 14 matches to play.
With many of their players in Bahrain for the Gulf Championships, five Kuwaiti juniors joined the experienced Badr Al Hussaini in representing the host nation. While the juniors all gained valuable experience without taking a game, Hussaini, encouraged by a sizeable crowd, pushed young Egyptian Tarek Momen, coming so close to winning two of the three games.
The two longest matches – both contested on the same court – saw Dutchman Dylan Bennett squeeze past Mark Krajcsak in five games and 72 minutes, and US number one Julian Illingworth come from behind in the decider to beat Mohd AA Reda, this time in 83 minutes.
The only upset came as Ritwik Bhattacharya, returning to the venue where he played the Asian Championships in February, overcame Australian Aaron Frankcomb in three well-contested games, the Indian triumphing in 53 minutes.
Tomorrow's qualifying finals will see eight players earn slots in the most valuable draw of the year so far, which gets under way on Wednesday …
Round One, 21st April:
Dylan Bennett (Ned) bt Mark Krajcsak (Hun) 11/8, 11/13, 11/7, 9/11, 11/9 (72m)
Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Mohd AA Reda (Egy) 9/11, 15/13, 11/5, 4/11, 11/9 (83m)
Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) bt Aaron Frankcomb (Aus) 11/4, 11/9, 11/6 (53m)
Davide Bianchetti (Ita) bt Jesse Engelbrecht (Rsa) 11/8, 11/8, 11/2 (35m
Tarek Momen (Egy)bt Bader Al Hussaini (Kuw) 16/14, 11/4, 11/9 (46m)
Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy) bt Adil Maqbool (Pak) 11/8, 11/9, 10/12, 11/8 (49m)
Amr Swelim (Egy) bt Shamlan Ahmad (Kuw) 11/1, 11/4, 11/2 (15m)
Saurav Ghosal (Ind) bt Mohd Al-Tuwary (Kuw) 11/5, 11/0, 11/3 (29m)
Daryl Selby (Eng) bt Amar Tameemi (Kuw) 11/5, 11/2, 11/2 (28m)
Jan Koukal (Cze) bt Ali Miski (Leb) 11/1, 11/3, 11/3 (16m)
Alister Walker (Eng) bt Omar Abdulatir (Kuw) 11/1, 11/3, 11/1 (17m)
Farhan Mehboob (Pak) bt Yasser El Halaby (Egy) 11/5, 11/6, 11/9 (29m)
Aamir Atlas Khan (Pak) bt Amr Mansi (Egy) 11/4, 11/9, 11/7 (34m)
Kashif Shuja (Nzl) bt Ahmed Al-Randy (Kuw) 11/7, 11/1, 11/6 (25m)
Qualification Round1