Day TWO, Round TWO

The Everbright Securities International Hong Kong Open continues on Day Two with 32 first second round matches across four courts at the Hong Kong Squash Centre, starting at noon.

We’ll cover what we can, and you can watch all four courts live, keep up with Live Scoring, follow results and updates on our social feeds, check out photos in the Gallery, and we’ll have a roundup at the end of the day.

Evening Session : Tong and Lau do it again for Hong Kong !!

A dramatic evening session at Hong Kong Squash Centre witnesses some amazing squash, a number of upset results, and two fanrtastic wins for Hong Kong players !

With the upstairg gallery packed with noisy and enthusiastic Hong Kong fans, Tong Tsz-Wing reached the third round with a three-nil win over Malaysia’s Low wee Wern, who is just returnign to action after a long injury layoff.

The final match of the evening was longer, noisier and more dramatic still as Tsz Kwan Lau got the better of Scotland’s Greg Lobban if five tense games, with the crowd chanting “Alex, Alex, Alex” on every point won.

The match swung one way then the other, with Lobban tasking the lead then levelling to force a decider, but it was Lau who dominated the fifth to the delight of the crowd.

Elsewhere all the top seeds progressed, although women’s second seed Nour El Sherbini was taken to five games by compatriot Nadine Shahin, and England’s Sarah-Jane Perry also needed five games to see off Jana Shiha.

“I’m happy to be through but I didn’t expect that,” said El Sherbini. “She was playing really well. I don’t think that I was playing the best squash, and I think the court was a bit tricky for me. I had an up-and-down match. I’m just happy I won in the end.”

Perry said : “Jana’s a really tough opponent, she’s had some close matches with some of the top 10 and some good wins against some top 20 players, so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” said Perry. “I didn’t start how I wanted to, butI managed to find some quality tight drives at the right point to force a few errors from in the fifth.”

The only top eight seed to fall was Egypt’s Salma Hany, losing out in four games to fellow-Egyptian Yathreb Adel, who was one of 13 Egyptian winners, and one of 11 players outside the top 16 seeds to progress.

“I’m very happy to get one of these wins against Salma,” said Adel. “I had to focus and make sure my shots are more tight, but I’m very happy and pleased and hopefully I can keep up these performances in the next round.”

Round three starts tomorrow, with eight matches from the top half of the draw on Centre Court.

Afternoon Session : Egyptians advance as Ho and Lee fall

Day Two opened with two of yesterday’s Hong Kon winners on the exhibition court at Hong Kong Squash Centre, but Tomato Ho and Lee Ka Yi faced uphill tasks as they were against world number 1 and 3 in Nouran Gohar and Hania El Hammamy.

“I just want them to play well, enjoy the experience and if they can take a game that would be great, no pressure,” said HK women’s coachg Rebecca Chiu before play started.

Ho gave Gohar a real test in the opening game, but the 2016 Hong Kong Open champion took the first and powered through ahead from 5-5 in the second to win 11-8, 11-5, 11-4.

Lee too gave a good account of herself, but Hammamy proved too strong, winning 11-5, 11-4, 11-5

With the top four seeds in both draws scheduled on the Glass Court, it was second and third seeds Diego Elias and Mohamed ElShorbagy up next, and both won convincingly in three games.

Elias took a 10-0 lead in the opening game before beating Mohamed ElSherbini 11-1, 11-3, 11-3, but ElShorbagy had to fight back from 9-6 down in the second before beating Eain Yow Ng 11-9, 11-9, 11-5.

Elsewhere there was a host of Egyptian winners – and a couple of tense all-Egyptian battles – as Rowan Elaraby, Nour El Tayeb, Youssef Soliman, Mazen Hesham and Fayrouz Aboelkheir all advanced – Aboelkheir reaching a Platinum round three for the first time with a fighting five-game win over compatriot Zeina Mickawy.

Patrick Rooney and Jasmine Hutton – who saved two match balls before overcoming Hana Ramadan in five – made sure England was represented in the last sixteens, while fellow 9/16 seeds Iker Pajares and Aifa Azman also claimed round three spots.

“I’m very relieved! At 2-0 down I thought I was booking my flight back home to London, but I’m super happy to get myself geed up again and win it in five,” Hutton explained.

Malaysia’s Ivan Yuen, Japan’s Satomi Watanabe and France’s Auguste Dussourd were all unseeded winners, Dussourd prevailing in a physical five-game