Day THREE : Round Two continues at Ally Pally
The action continues at the London Classic with eight more Round Two matches to determine the quarter-finalists in the bottom half of the draws …
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Women’s Round Two (bottom):
[2] Amina Orfi (Egy) 2-0 Sabrina Sobhy (Usa) 11-3, 11-7 (23m)
Georgia Adderley (Sco) 2-1 [6] Gina Kennedy (Eng) 6-11, 11-8, 11-7 (34m)
Jasmine Hutton (Eng) 2-1 [4] Tinne Gilis (Bel) 6-11, 11-7, 11-5 (35m)
[5] Siva Subramaniam (Mas) 2-0 Tomato Ho (Hkg) 11-7, 12-10 (23m)
Men’s Round Two (bottom):
[6] Youssef Soliman (Egy) 2-1 Dimitri Steinmann (Sui) 11-7, 8-11, 11-1 (53m)
[2] Paul Coll (Nzl) 2-1 Mohamed Aboelghar (Egy) 11-6, 10-12, 13-11 (52m)
[4] Marwan ElShorbagy (Eng) 2-1 [wc] Adrian Waller (Eng) 11-5, 10-12, 11-3 (35m)
[8] Eain Yow Ng (Mas) 2-1 Abdulla Al-Tamimi (Qat) 8-11, 12-10, 11-9 (43m)
Evening Matches
Another big upset in the evening session as England’s Jasmine Hutton came from a game down to oust fourth seed Tinne Gilis. She’ll meet Siva Subramanian in the semis after the defending champion beat Tomato Ho in two close games.
Marwan ElShorbagy and Eain Yow Ng booked their quarter-final spots with three-game wins over Adrian Waller an Abdulla Al-Tamimi.
Afternoon Matches
Day Three started with a comfortable win for second seed Amina Orfi over Sabrina Sobhy, while the second women’s match produced a significant upset as Scotland’ Georgia Adderley came from a game down to beat sixth seeded Gina Kennedy.
Both men’s matches went the distance as Youssef Soliman and Paul Coll set up a quarter-final clash with victories over Dimitri Steinmann and Mohamed Abouelghar.
Day Three Roundup : Hutton ousts fourth seed Gilis
England’s World No.18 Jasmine Hutton reached the quarter-finals of the London Squash Classic presented by Bassim Haidar for the first time after she came back from a game down to beat fourthNo.4 seed Tinne Gilis at Alexandra Palacy.
Hutton is the highest-ranked British player remaining in the women’s draw and had won just one of her previous seven matches against the Belgian No.1 coming into today’s match at the Gold-level event.
The 26-year-old went behind after an accurate start from Gilis, but she fought back and found her lines in the next two games to complete the win. Hutton will now go up against defending champion Sivasangari Subramaniam after the Malaysian beat Tomato Ho 11-7, 12-10.
“It’s such an iconic venue and such a special place, so there were a lot of nerves,” said Hutton afterwards.
“I also didn’t play Nationals, so hadn’t quite had the match practice I would have liked. Tinne came out firing and my accuracy wasn’t good enough at the start, she just picked me off every second she could. I had to regroup and gain a bit more accuracy in that second game.
“It’s just an amazing venue and when you have so many friends and family being able to come you just want to showcase what you’ve worked on over the summer.”
Georgina Kennedy – the women’s England No.1 – suffered an early exit as she lost to Scotland’s World No.22 Georgia Adderley in the day’s other big upset.
Adderley had lost all nine of her matches against Kennedy on the PSA Squash Tour coming into today’s encounter, but all of those matches came under a best-of-five games format. Adderley’s aggressive attacking game paid dividends in the best of three format as she fought back from a game behind to win 6-11, 11-8, 11-7.
“I’m over the moon,” said Adderley.
“She’s a phenomenal player and she’s had a really good few years. The last couple have also been pretty tight against her, so I knew I could compete and I felt like the best of three kind of favoured me in that way. I’m really proud of myself. You have to really empty the tank and make it as physical possible, which I tried to do today.”
Adderley will go up against Egypt’s World No.5 Amina Orfi for a place in the semi-finals, with Orfi scoring a comfortable win against USA’s Sabrina Sobhy.
Men’s defending champion Paul Coll suffered a scare in his match with Egypt’s Mohamed Abouelghar, overturning three match balls to secure his place in the last eight.
Abouelghar – who reached a highest world ranking of No.7 in 2019 – had Coll under his spell for large portions of the match, but the Kiwi held his nerve and profited off crucial errors from the Egyptian’s racket at the business end of the third game.
Coll said: “I mentally felt great out there.
“I’ve actually been playing very well for months now in practice, but it just wasn’t clicking for me today. Mentally, I was switched on, so I was always confident I could find the way through that. He wasn’t missing and playing best of three against Abouelghar in the first match this season is a tough one.”
Coll will play Egypt’s World No.8 Youssef Soliman in the next round. Soliman, who is now coached by four-time World Champion Ali Farag, overcame Dimitri Steinmann 2-1.
England No.1 Marwan ElShorbagy also progressed to the last eight, with his 11-5, 10-12, 11-3 win over compatriot Adrian Waller seeing him through to play Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng.
“Adrian is so tricky and I’ve always struggled to read him,” said ElShorbagy.
“Best of three is always tough, especially when you start the season with it. It’s a great venue and I had a good tournament last time. I played very well and I’m hoping to produce good squash later this week.”
