It's been a long time coming, but after three years of the
Cayman Islands Open, getting bigger and better each time, the
World Open finally comes to town - well, almost to Georgetown -
on Friday as qualifying gets under way at South Sound Squash
Club.
The initial target is to qualify for the main draw, of course,
then it's to progress past the first round to the glass court on
Camana Bay, and ultimately to lift the impressive trophy -
hewn from of Caymanite - , which will take some doing
after playing all that squash!
Qualifying Round One:
Court One:
Full Draw & Results
Lisa Aitken (Sco) 3/2 Leonie Holt (Eng)
Nicolette Fernandes 3/0 (Guy)Coline Aumard (Fra) v
Misaki Kobayashi (Jpn) 3/0 Eilidh Bridgeman (Cay)
Sarah-Jane Perry (Eng) 3-0 Ashley DeGroot (Guy)
Yathreb Adel (Egy) 3-0 Maria Toor Pakay (Pak)
Mary Fung-a-Fat (Guy) w/o Kanzy El Dafrawy (Egy)
Court Three:
Full Draw & Results
Tesni Evans (Wal) 3-0 Ivonne Diaz (Mex)
Nayelly Hernandez (Mex) 3-2 Milou Van Der Heijden
(Ned)
Catalina Pelaez (Col) 3-0 Kylie Lindsay (Nzl)
Lauren Selby (Eng) 3-0 Karina Heredia (Mex)
Heba El Torky (Egy) 3-0 Katja Amir (Ger)
Fernandes carries Caribbean
hopes at South Sound
 Day
one of qualifying for the Cayman World Open - delayed by a few
minutes as the players, referees and spectators watched the end
of the Men's World Open final from Qatar - saw some quick
matches but some tough battles too, with Caribbean champion
Nicolette Fernandes giving the South Sound most to cheer
about as she overcame France's Coline Aumard in straight games.
"I lost 3/0 last time we played," explained Fernandes, "but I'm
used to the courts here and used to the hot conditions, so maybe
that was an advantage for me today. It's just the first match
though, everyone is here with the aim of winning the world
title, so there's a long way to go yet."
 The
cheers were almost as loud for local wildcard Eilidh Bridgeman,
even if she was one of five players to lose in 20 minutes or
less, in this case to Misaki Kobayashi.
"I've been here since Monday, really enjoying it," said Japanese
champion Kobayashi. "It's great to get on court, I finally feel
like a squash player!"
Tesni Evans was the first player through to tomorrow's
finals with a quick win over Ivonne Diaz, and English pair
Sarah-Jane Perry and Lauren Selby were equally
efficient, as was Egypt's Heba El Torky.
Colombian Catalina Pelaez provided the biggest upset of
the round as she beat Kiwi Kylie Lindsay in straight games. "I
was injured at the World Teams and hadn't played much, so I was
a bit worried," said the South American, "But I played pretty
well and I'm very pleased to win in my first world open."
 Scotland's
Lisa Aitken and Mexico's Nayelly Hernandez were
both made to work hard for their wins, Aitken squandering a
two-game lead before reasserting to beat Leoine Holt in the
fifth, Hernandez coming from 2/1 down to upset Holland's Milou
Van Der Heijden.
"I lost my concentration after the first two," explained Aitken.
"It's so hot on these courts and I lost confidence in being able
to take the ball in short, I stopped attacking.
"Fortunately she made a few errors at the start of the fifth and
I picked it up from there."
The final match was a hotly contested affair between Yathreb
Adel and Maria Toor Pakay, two highly-competitive
characters. It was Egyptian Adel who won through in three close
games, to set up a meeting with Latasha Khan in tomorrow's
qualifying finals.
Lots more photos in
the Gallery |
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