Semi-Finals:
Top seeds on song in Brazil
The favourites Mohd Azlan Iskandar
and Borja Golan advanced to final without
major
problems, both still to concede a game in the
tournament.
Borja beats Jonathan Kemp in straight games and always had
control of the match. He opened
12/4 lead in the first,
before taking it 15/12. The second was a
similar story. Golan lead 9/2, Kemp
drew back to 8/9 and finally
Golan closed it out 15/8. The
pattern was repeated in the third, with Golan opening
to 9/3, Kemp reaching
to 8/9 and 13/12 but Golan
once again upped the pace to take the game 15/13 and the
match 3/0.
Mohd Iskandar made Barker
work very hard, and Barker
was a willing runner.. Very long rallies,
in
each point with the same final result: point to Iskandar He dominated
the match
from beginning to
end and close easily in straight games,
15/9 15/5 15/10.
Tomorrow's final promises much, and the crowd
here in South
America are anxious
to
see the great final between the top seeds.
Quarter-Finals:
The favourites still go on ...
Mohd Iskandar beat Ben Garner without a lot work. He is in
perfect shape and impressed the crowd in
Goiania. Spaniard Borja Golan showed
great squash and punished the home
crowd favourite Rafael Alarcon.
Golan began with a mix of strong and smooth shots,
forcing Alarcon to go to all four corners of the glass court. The first
game was 15/3, to the surprise
of the full house. In the second Alarcon reacted and the game was
even until 9 all, after which Golan took
advantage to close it out 15/12.
Rafael is known
for not surrendering in any circumstances,
and in other tournaments he
has treated the crowd to great comebacks but not this time.
Golan displayed great squash and closed
the match with another incredible 15/13.
In the other matches, Jonathan Kemp beat Argentinian
Jorge Gutierrez in 3 straight games, but the
last one was the best of the day. Jonathan cut
his nose in one rally when his racket shocked
the glass and turned directly to his face.
At that moment the
game was 13/12 to Gutierrez. After 5 minutes. Kemp returned
and moved to matchball 14/13, Gutierrez
levelled at 14 all and then
16 all, but Jonathan kept the pace to win the
match and advanced to face Golan in tomorrow's
semi-final.
The last game of the night was a British
battle between Lee Drew, seed #3 and Peter
Barker, runner-up at the World Junior Championship last year. Barker
dominated the match and won easily in
straight games. He now meets the top seed Mohd iskandar
in the semi-finals.
First Round:
Top seeds advance
in Brazilian heat
The top seeds advanced without
problem in the first round in Goiania, but the
Brazilian heat caused problems for some.
Mohd Izkandar and Borja Golan dominated the brazilians
Ronivaldo Conceição and Luciano Barbosa, who had
the crowd support, but it was not enough.
The glass court at the Buriti Shopping Center was the arena
for the 8 first round
matches. The first game began at 13:00 local time and the heat
was intense.
Two players, Scott Fitzgerald and Laurens
Anjema, struggled in the
35° celsius heat of
Goiania and had problems. Laurens was 2 games
up over Argentinian Jorge
Gutierrez but the weather was cruel and
Laurens was almost
ill on court. He just about
finished the game and
went away in strong
pain. Scott also just after the game complained of stomach pain.
Rafael Alarcon, supported by
the hometown crowd,
played an excellent game to
push Alex Stait
to limit, and ie now is the only brazilian
left in the quarter-finals.
PREVIEW
Babelfish translation of Portuguese original from MoriSquash
Brazil Open starts in this 1º of October with some alterations of last
hour. The Irishan Read Kenny that had place guaranteed in the main key and
the Alexander Frenchman Bell had given up to participate and with this he
had important changes. The Welshman Scott Fitzgerald was with the vacant of
Read Kenny and faces the English Ben Garner in the first round. With the
promotion of Fitzgerald and the desistances of the Frenchman and also of the
Vinicius Brazilian Coast, for financial problems, he made with that qualy
only had 6 athletes. Of this form, the Mexican Erick Galvez and the
Brazilian Luciano Barbosa already are classified depending only on the
sosrteio to know its adversaries.
They fight for the 2 final vacant: the Brazilian Ronivaldo Conceição, the
Egyptian Mohamed ELkeiy, the Argentine Jorge Gutierrez and Paraguay Esteban
Casarino. In the main key the favourite person or thing to be with the
heading is the malaio Mohamed Azlan Iskandar, nº 36 of the world and that it
comes of good results. Last week Iskandar was with the vice-championship of
the Saint Barbara Open in the United States, match with awarding of U$
10.000. Iskandar lost in the end for the Australian Paul Price, current 20º
of the world and former top 10.
The Spaniard Borja Golan, 43º of the world, also has good possibilities
to be with the heading, although to have disappointed its twisted one to the
being eliminated in the first round of Barcelona Open. But the Spaniard is a
great player and can recover in Brazil Open. Beyond them, England comes with
a legion of 7 players, who although young, they come growing in ranking
world-wide and getting good resulted in the circuit. Prominence for Jonathan
winning Kemp last week of the super match satelite Barcelona Open, Ben
Garner, half-finalista in the Saint Barbara Open, only losing for the great
Paul Price, and Alister half-finalista Walker in Barcelona Open.
Between the Brazilians, Rafael Alarcon, 106º of the world, received the
invitation from the organizadores and estréia against the English Alex Stait,
63º. Alex does not come of good results and was eliminated in the first one
twirled of the 2 last matches that played. If Rafael to repeat the
performance of the Companion Open in Campinas in which was champion and
defeated very better athletes with rankings that its, has everything to pass
to fourth of end. Luciano Barbosa and Ronivaldo Conceição when passing for
qualy must soon have strong crossings in the first game, however playing in
house and with the support of the twisted one also they can surprise,
especially Roni.
Brasil Open