The top four seeds in the Women’s Assore Central Gauteng Open, PSA
W5 tournament all swept through to the quarter-final stage, with
title favourite Cheyna Tucker leading the charge in Johannesburg.
World No.69 Tucker came up against fellow South African Kacey-Leigh
Dodd in her first round fixture and made short work of her opponent,
surging to an 11-4, 11-2, 11-4 triumph to seal her last eight berth.
Up next for Tucker is a meeting with Rowan Elaraby, the 15-year-old
Egyptian who is appearing at her first ever PSA World Tour event,
after she defeated Robyn Boy.
Second seed Milnay Louw, meanwhile, also moved into the next round
with a comfortable victory over Mariska Wiese, as she dropped just
five points throughout the whole match to canter to the win. Makgosi
Peloakgosi will go up against Louw for a place in the semi-final
after she beat Megan Page 3-1.
Elsewhere, Elani Landman blitzed past Casey Preece to set up a tie
against Angie Clifton-Parks, with Clifton-Parks only requiring three
games to dispatch Bongi Seroto.
Lume Landman, who is the twin of Elani, battled to a dramatic 3-2
win against fellow South African Alexa Pienaar and her reward is a
quarter-final fixture with Yemisi Olatunji.
Top seed Shehab Essam had no problems progressing to the
quarter-final stage of the Assore Central Gauteng Open, PSA M5
tournament after storming to victory over South African qualifier
Craig van der Wath in round two in Johannesburg.
The World No.93 played at an extremely high pace throughout the
27-minute encounter and gave van der Wath no time on the ball as he
duly romped to the win with an 11-6, 11-1, 11-6 scoreline.
Essam will face local hero Jean-Pierre Brits for a place in the
semi-final after seventh seed Brits dispatched compatriot Gareth
Naidoo in straight games.
Elsewhere, Egypt’s Ahmed Effat Ashoush followed up his superb
opening round upset against Matthew Serediak with another
hard-fought 3-2 triumph, this time against Andrew Martin. The lead
changed hands multiple times during a high-octane and highly charged
affair and Ashoush prevailed 17-15 in a gladiatorial deciding game
to set up a quarter-final clash with Dylan Groenewald, who defeated
England’s Mark Broekman in four.
“I am very happy to be through to the next round,” said Ashoush.
“I am pleased with my performances so far and have won two very hard
matches in the fifth. I am really looking forward to the match
tomorrow against the youngster Dylan Groenewald from South Africa,
who had a very good win against Mark”.
Number two seed Aqeel Rehman has also advanced to the last eight
thanks to a victory over Hesham Mohamed Aly and he will be pitted
against Vincent Droesbeke, with the Frenchman celebrating a 3-0 win
against South Korea’s SeungYong Yoo.
Leandro Romiglio of Argentina and local player Devon Hendrikse will
face off in the other quarter-final fixture after they achieved
respective wins against South African opponents Zuko Kubukeli and
Christo Potgieter.
Round one of the 2016 Assore Central Gauteng Open, PSA M5 tournament
saw Egypt’s Ahmed Effat Ashoush come up with the day’s big upset
after he stunned number four seed Matthew Serediak in five games to
reach the next round.
Ashoush maintained a steady length throughout the 61-minute
encounter and kept the ball extremely tight. Serediak responded by
trying to go for early winners, which initially paid dividends after
he built up a 2-1 lead, but a number of unforced errors in the
fourth and fifth games saw him drop a multitude of points and
Ashoush managed to see out the win with an 7-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-3,
11-9 margin of victory to seal his place in round two.
The World No.266 is set to face local player Andrew Martin in the
next round after the South African dispatched qualifier Garren Kent
in four.
England’s Ben Coates was another of the seeded players to succumb to
a lower-ranked opponent after he was outplayed by Vincent Droesbeke.
The Frenchman is ranked 183 places below his opponent in the World
Rankings but blew that gap wide open as he stormed to a 3-0 triumph.
Elsewhere, top seed Shehab Essam secured his place in the next round
after recovering from a game down against Ruan Olivier to set up a
second round clash with Craig van der Wath, who saw off Namibia’s
Andrew Forrest, while Aqeel Rehman defeated Zwelake Makgalemele to
ensure he will face Hesham Mohamed Aly in the next round thanks to
his win over Callan Hall.
Leandro Romiglio is also through to round two, courtesy of a
straightforward 3-0 victory against Adewale Amao. Zuko Kubukeli will
go up against Romiglio for a place in the last eight after he
overcame Moses Durosinmi.
The main draws of the Assore Central Gauteng Open, PSA M5 & W5
tournaments see Shehab Essam and Cheyna Tucker, respectively, named
the top seeds, with the Men’s draw beginning on Monday April 18 and
the Women’s event getting under way a day later.
Essam lifted his maiden PSA World Tour title three months ago at the
Savcor Finnish Open and has appeared at just one tournament since
then, which resulted in a first round defeat against Mohamed Reda in
the Qatar Circuit III.
The World No.93 has established himself as a bonafide top 100 player
in recent months and the 20-year-old will be hoping to add this
title to a burgeoning career.
Home player Ruan Olivier will stand between Essam and a place in
round two as he looks to make a winning start to his campaign.
Austria’s Aqeel Rehman is seeded to meet Essam in the final and the
30-year-old is on the hunt for a first PSA World Tour title since
2014 where he prevailed at the Caldense International Squash
Championship.
Rehman, whose last final appearance was at the Pilatus Cup last
year, achieved a quarter-final finish at the Austrian Open a
fortnight ago and will be looking to go up a gear in Johannesburg.
Rehman gets his tournament off to a start against Zwelake
Makgalemele.
World No.114 Leandro Romiglio is also in the battle for honours in
South Africa and gets his title ambitions under way against
Nigeria’s Adewale Amao.
Romiglio, a 2015 PanAmerican Games semi-finalist, has a solitary PSA
World Tour title to his name at present with victory in September’s
BDO Northfield Cup but he has been through some mixed form since
then, with three successive first round defeats leading up to this
tournament. However, Romiglio is a talented player and could be a
dark horse for the title if he plays to his full potential.
Canada’s Matthew Serediak is seeded fourth and will be doing his
utmost to make an impact in the latter stages. The World No.139 has
only made it to the quarter-final stage or beyond in one of his last
21 PSA World Tour events, but the 31-year-old’s experience could see
him make a surprise title charge this time around. Serediak will
take on Egypt’s Ahmed Effat Ashoush in the first round.
In the Women’s event, Tucker will be aiming to improve on the
semi-final finish she managed here last year as she tops a
competitive draw.
The World No.69 was unlucky to lose out in five to fellow South
African Alexandra Fuller in the last four in 2015 but is seeded
first as she gears up for an assault on the crown on home soil and
she will line up against compatriot Kacey-Leigh Dodd.
Like Tucker, last year’s quarter-finalist Milnay Louw will be hoping
for greater things as she looks to rediscover the kind of form that
took her to a series of semi-final and quarter-final finishes last
year.
Louw is guaranteed to meet a South African in every round up until
the final, if she makes it that far, with Mariska Wiese set to be
her first opponent.
There will be plenty of local participation in the main draw of the
Women’s Assore Central Gauteng Open, PSA W5 tournament, with all but
two of the main draw spots being taken up by South Africans after
four local players progressed past qualifying.
Megan Page soared through to round one of the main draw after taking
out Nono Sekhoto in straight games. She powered to a one game lead
for the loss of just two points and followed that up with commanding
wins in games two and three to wrap up an 11-2, 11-4, 11-7 triumph.
Page will go up against compatriot Makgosi Peloakgosi next with an
all-South African quarter-final clash against either Milnay Louw or
Mariska Wiese potentially on the cards.
Casey Preece will join her fellow South Africans in the main draw
after she managed a hard-fought 3-0 triumph against Pam Lerm. Preece
prevailed in the opening two games thanks to tie-break wins and she
maintained her performance into the third to take the victory in
three and set up a main draw showdown with number three seed Elani
Landman.
Elsewhere, Wiese dispatched Cathy Botma without dropping a game and
is rewarded with a difficult first round encounter with second seed
Louw.
Robyn Boy was the other qualifier to advance to the main draw thanks
to a walkover against Panashe Sithole and she will play Rowan
Elaraby.
The final qualifying round of the Men’s Assore Central Gauteng Open,
PSA M5 tournament saw a number of local players battle through to
secure their main draw participation in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Zuko Kubukeli came up against Ray Diamini in his match and surged
through to victory in straight games, with an 11-4, 11-6, 11-6
scoreline enough to see him advance to the main draw.
Kubukeli will go up against Moses Durosinmi for a place in round two
as he looks to continue his fine progress so far.
Makoshonke Ntuli is also through to the next round thanks to his 3-0
win over Zandre Botha. Despite the 3-0 scoreline, the win wasn’t a
straightforward one, with a tie-break victory in game one and a
narrow triumph in game two only just separating the two South
African’s. Ntuli went up a gear in the third though and cantered to
victory in that game to record the victory and set up a main draw
clash with seventh seed Jean-Pierre Brits.
Elsewhere, Craig van der Wath, Dylan Groenewald and Jarryd Carter
all sealed their main draw berths thanks to victories over Brad
Lodge, Cyal Eigenmann and Mike Veliades, respectively. Van der Wath
will line up against, while Groenewald receives a walkover to the
second round. Meanwhile, Carter will play SeungYong Yoo.
The closest match of the day was played out between Zwelake
Makgalemele and Mikael Clayton, with the former progressing courtesy
of a 3-2 margin of victory and he will go head-to-head with second
seed Aqeel Rehman in round one of the main draw.
