14/06/2014
KENT OPEN 2014
Six English Players Through to Quarter Finals
Select Gaming Kent Open, The Mote Squash Club,
Maidstone, England
1st Round
This PSA Challenger 10
tournament, celebrating its fifth year at The Mote Squash Club in
Maidstone, England, once again provides a platform for rising home
talent to impress on the internationalo stage.
Assistant national
coach David Campion was present to check the progress of many of his
charges with five all-English battles on the schedule.
In the longest match
of the night, No.6 seed Declan James beat his Nottingham team-mate
Chris Fuller in a 92-minute marathon.
James meets top seed
Finitsis in the last eight after the tall Australian overpowered
Youssef Abdalla in straight games.
European junior
champion Richie Fallows took just 24 minutes to beat Pakistan's Adil
Maqbool to set up a quarter-final clash with Scotland's No.4 seed
Greg Lobban.
Bizarrely, Lobban lost
the second game 11-1 but hit back to beat young England hopeful Tom
Ford 3-1.
Second seed Jonathan
Kemp, the reigning Kent Open champion, also lost a game for just one
point but he too hit back to win a tough battle with Yorkshire
fighter James Earles.
Kemp, who is appearing
in his final tournament after announcing his retirement from the PSA
Tour, faces a tough quarter-final against the in-forrm Ben Coleman,
who won a brutal battle with 18-year-old qualifier George Parker.
American No.7 seed
Harrity beat qualifier Mike Harris in straight games and now meets
No.3 seed Charles Sharpes. The British Under-23 champion withstood
fierce pressure in the first game against wild card Steven London to
win from 8-7 down but then took control to win the next two games
11-3. “I have seen Jonathan play in
various tournaments all over the world and I will never forget how
close he came to beating four-times world champion Amr Shabana in
Richmond, Virginia, a couple of years ago.”
Preview The
world No.41 from Cairo was unable to secure a visa to leave Egypt.
This forced a reshuffle of the draw and promoted top seeded
qualifier Richie Fallows, the European junior champion who trains at
Bexley, into the main event at The Mote.
Fallows, who is coached at Bexley by Ben Ford, meets Pakistan’s
world No.98 Adil Maqbool fresh from winning his first PSA World
Tour title in Kriens, Switzerland.
Fallows, 18, beat Egypt’s world No.53 Zahed Mohamed in the Kriens
final and said: “I’m ecstatic at my first senior pro tournament win.
I just hope I can carry that form forward into the Kent Open.” The
Kent Open begins on Sunday with a pre-qualifying tournament which
pitches eight locals in with the professionals.
Eight days of top-class squash come to a close with the final on
Sunday week (June 15).
Australian Steve Finitsis takes over as number one seed with
reigning champion Jonathan Kemp at two. Both meet qualifiers in the
first round of the main draw.
British Under-23 champion Charles Sharpes, from Surrey, is installed
as No.3 seed with Scotland’s Greg Lobban at four.
Sharpes tackles Kent’s wild card Steven London, from Park Langley,
while Lobban meets in-form England youngster Tom Ford, who recently
won the Pretoria Open in South Africa.
Another English player in form is Essex ace Ben Coleman, who has
completed a hat-trick of tournament wins in the past month in
Aberdeen, Ipswich and Madrid. He
is seeded to meet Kemp in the quarter-finals. Not only is an
all-English showdown on the cards, but a Coleman win would bring
down the curtain on a distinguished career for the stylish
left-hander Kemp, who has announced his retirement from the PSA Tour
at the age of 33. The
Kent Open will be his final event and Tournament Director Alan
Thatcher said: “I am sure Jonathan would love to go all the way and
win his final PSA Tour event. He made a lot of friends at The Mote
last year and he is a wonderful role model. “He
plays with style and a smile and however well he performs we will
honour his contribution to the sport with a special presentation. “I
have seen Jonathan play in various tournaments all over the world
and I will never forget how close he came to beating four-times
world champion Amr Shabana in Richmond, Virginia, a couple of years
ago.”
KENT OPEN FACT FILE The
Kent Open is celebrating its fifth year as a PSA world-ranking
tournament at The Mote. All
four winners so far have used Harrow rackets: Alan Clyne, Chris
Ryder, Chris Simpson and Jonathan Kemp. +++
Kent Open organiser Alan Thatcher is one of the busiest men in
squash. As well as being Kent SRA president, he is also co-promoter
of London’s top tournament, the Canary Wharf Classic, and is founder
of World Squash Day. He
also organises the squash radar gun record series. The current top
speed in squash is 176mph recorded by Aussie Cameron Pilley. Players
in the Kent Open will be trying to beat it next week. +++ The
Pre-Qualifying tournament starts on Sunday, with Mote members Adrian
Humphries, Darren Heathfield, Matt Hazzard, Paul Newvell, Marcus
Robson and Jason Goodayle, joining Canterbury pair Joe Magor and Tom
May in a shoot-out with eight pros (including Maidstone’s Bradley
Masters). The
two winners go through to the Qualifying Tournament on Tuesday and
Wednesday alongside The Mote’s James Evans and Jonny Powell, and
Maidstone’s Josh Masters.
Four qualifiers go through to the main draw. The first round is next
Thursday, the quarter-finals on Friday, semi-finals on Saturday and
the finals on Sunday June 15. +++
Total prize money for the Kent Open is 10,000 dollars (roughly
£6,000). The winner takes home just under £1,000. +++ The
Kent Open features free coaching sessions from the professionals for
local juniors each day next week. The sessions start at 4pm from
Tuesday to Friday. A
free Ladies Day session starts at 1pm on Saturday week, the day of
the semi-finals. +++ The
finals weekend is being billed as the biggest party in squash, with
a variety of fun events built into the schedule around the
semi-finals and the finals. A
doubles tournament will be staged with cash prizes attracting some
serious teams from around the south of England.
+++ The
withdrawal of Egypt’s top seed Ali Anwar Reda from the Kent Open
coincides with plans for a new international academy at The Mote
which could provide a major training base for leading professional
players. The
Mote are planning to install an all-glass show court and Tournament
Director Alan Thatcher revealed: “Egypt is the leading squash nation
in the world but many of their players are finding life difficult
because of the current political turmoil.
“The players suffer from restrictions imposed by the curfews and
from difficulties in obtaining visas. Therefore the provision of a
European training base would make good sense for many of them.
“Informal discussions have taken place so far, but we would be
pleased to offer a top-class training facility for the leading
English and Egyptian players.
“These are the two super-powers of world squash and it would be
amazing if we were to have these players based at The Mote. “It
would also provide a massive inspiration for our junior members to
train alongside some of the world’s leading players.
“The glass court would also enable us to take the Kent Open to a new
level and stage other major events for television, such as
international Test matches.”
Thatcher also has plans to televise professional racketball. +++
KENT OPEN SCHEDULE
Alan Thatcher
Select
Gaming Kent Open
12-15 June 2014,
The Mote Squash Club,
Maidstone
Round One
12 June
Quarters
13
June
Semis
14
June
Final
15 June
(1) Steve Finitsis (AUS)
11-6, 11-9, 11-7 (44 mins)
Youssef Abdalla (ENG)
Steve Finitsis
v
Declan James
(6) Declan James (ENG)
5-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-6 (92 mins)
Chris Fuller (ENG)
Richie Fallows (ENG)
11-7, 11-8, 11-8 (24 mins)
(8) Adil Maqbool (Pakistan)
Richie Fallows
v
Greg Lobban
(4) Greg Lobban (ENG)
11-9, 1-11, 11-8, 11-4
(52 mins)
Tom Ford (ENG)
(3) Charles Sharpes (ENG)
11-9, 11-3, 11-3 (32 mins)
Steven London (ENG)
Charles Sharpes
v
Todd Harrity
(7) Todd Harrity (USA)
11-4, 11-9, 11-9 (37 mins)
Mike Harris (ENG)
(5) Ben Coleman (ENG)
11-7, 11-6, 11-6 (54 mins)
George Parker (ENG)
Ben
Coleman
v
Jonathan Kemp
(2) Jonathan Kemp (ENG)
1-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-9
(37 mins)
James Earles (ENG)
(Report Courtesy of Alan Thatcher)
Select
Gaming Kent Open
Australian top seed Steve Finitsis and American star Todd Harrity
join six English players in the quarter-finals of the Select Gaming
Kent Open.
KENT
OPEN SQUASH DRAMA
The Select Gaming Kent Open squash tournament was forced to overcome
a last-minute drama when top seed Ali Anwar Reda was forced to
withdraw.
The world No.41 from Cairo was unable to secure a visa to leave
Egypt. This forced a reshuffle of the draw and promoted top seeded
qualifier Richie Fallows, the European junior champion who trains at
Bexley, into the main event at The Mote.
Fallows,
who is coached at Bexley by Ben Ford, meets Pakistan’s world No.98
Adil Maqbool fresh from winning his first PSA World Tour title in
Kriens, Switzerland.
richie fallows
Fallows, 18, beat Egypt’s world No.53 Zahed Mohamed in the Kriens
final and said: “I’m ecstatic at my first senior pro tournament win.
I just hope I can carry that form forward into the Kent Open.”
The Kent Open begins on Sunday with a pre-qualifying tournament
which pitches eight locals in with the professionals.
Eight days of top-class squash come to a close with the final on
Sunday week (June 15).
Australian
Steve Finitsis takes over as number one seed with reigning champion
Jonathan Kemp at two. Both meet qualifiers in the first round of the
main draw.
British Under-23 champion Charles Sharpes, from Surrey, is installed
as No.3 seed with Scotland’s Greg Lobban at four.
Sharpes tackles Kent’s wild card Steven London, from Park Langley,
while Lobban meets in-form England youngster Tom Ford, who recently
won the Pretoria Open in South Africa.
Another English player in form is Essex ace Ben Coleman, who has
completed a hat-trick of tournament wins in the past month in
Aberdeen, Ipswich and Madrid.
He is seeded to meet Kemp in the quarter-finals. Not only is an
all-English showdown on the cards, but a Coleman win would bring
down the curtain on a distinguished career for the stylish
left-hander Kemp, who has announced his retirement from the PSA Tour
at the age of 33.
The Kent Open will be his final event and Tournament Director Alan
Thatcher said: “I am sure Jonathan would love to go all the way and
win his final PSA Tour event. He made a lot of friends at The Mote
last year and he is a wonderful role model.
“He plays with style and a smile and however well he performs we
will honour his contribution to the sport with a special
presentation.
The
Select Gaming Kent Open squash tournament was forced to overcome a
last-minute drama when top seed Ali Anwar Reda was forced to
withdraw.
June 8-9: Pre-Qualifying.
June 10-11: Qualifying competition.
June 12: Main Draw First Round.
June 13: Quarter-Finals.
June 14: Semi-Finals.
June 15: Finals.