Seeds Safely Through in Doha

The opening day of the 2004 World Open in Doha saw all the seeds in the top half of the draw safely through to the second round, but defending champion Amr Shabana needed five games to keep his title defence on track.

In the morning session Joe Kneipp's experience proved too much for Malaysian youngster Azlan Iskandar, Mohammed Abbas won a disappointing all-Egyptian match against Wael El Hindi, and two English youngsters, James Willstrop and Adrian Grant won in three games against Rodney Durbach and Renan Lavigne respectively.

Following the opening ceremony action moved onto the glass court - favoured by shotmakers such as Shabana and Jonathon Power.

Shabana Survives
Defending champion Shabana survived a scare against PSA President Mark Chaloner. The Egyptian took the first easily, but all-too-familiar lapses mixed in with the brilliant shots, allowing Chaloner to come back and take a 2-1 lead.

In the end Shabana's shots carried him through, but more care will be needed if he is to realise his confident predictions this week. He meets compatriot Abbas on Tuesday.

On the outside court England's Simon Parke took the first game from Karim Darwish but was unable to convert it as Darwish took the next three to set up a clash of former World Junior Champions against Willstrop.

Injuries no problem
On the showcourt top seed and world number one Lee Beachill showed no signs of the abductor injury that troubled him in Canada, although Italian Davide Bianchetti stretched the Yorkshireman to an extended tie-break in the third. Beachill now meets Kneipp for a place in the quarter-finals.

Another player recently on the injured list, British Open champion David Palmer, the 2002 world champion, brushed aside Dutch qualifier Tommy Berden in 37 minutes, apparently recovered from the shoulder injury which kept him out of the Canadian Classic. Palmer's second round opponent is Grant.

The bottom half of the draw plays on Monday, alongside sixteen women's first round matches

28-Nov, Round ONE:

First round, Top Half:
[1] Lee Beachill (Eng) bt Davide Bianchetti (Ita) 11/4, 11/5, 11/10 (5-3) (51m)
[10] Joe Kneipp (Aus) bt [Q] Azlan Iskandar (Mas) 11/9, 11/7, 11/6 (36m)
[8] Karim Darwish (Egy) bt Simon Parke (Eng) 8/11, 11/9, 11/8, 11/7 (56m)
[12] James Willstrop (Eng) bt [Q] Rodney Durbach (Rsa) 11/9, 11/4, 11/5 (44m)
[4] David Palmer (Aus) v [Q] Tommy Berden (Ned) 11/9, 11/9, 11/6 (37m)
[13] Adrian Grant (Eng) bt Renan Lavigne (Fra) 11/7, 11/9, 11/9 (46m)
[6] Amr Shabana (Egy) bt Mark Chaloner (Eng) 11/4, 8/11, 3/11, 11/7, 11/5 (51m)
[16] Mohammed Abbas (Egy) bt [Q] Wael El Hindi (Egy) 11/5, 11/4, 11/2 (27m)

Voor meer informatie: http://www.squashsite.co.uk/qatarworldopen.htm