Day TWO: Qualifying Finals – Good day for the British Men
It was a good day for the British Men at the University of Hull as England, Wales and Scotland claimed six of the eight qualifying places – Joel Makin, George Parker, Greg Lobban, Ben Coleman, Chris Simpson and Adrian Waller joined by France’s Gregoire Marche and Germany’s Raphael Kandra in the main draw.
Makin, who beat England’s Tom Richards in five games, becomes the first Welshman to reach the main draw in a decade, while Lobban, with a straight games win over Lucas Serme, kept Scottish hopes alive with Alan Clyne losing out to Chris Simpson, who was one of four Englishmen to progress. The Guernsey man’s ‘reward’ is the toughest match of all the qualifier, against second seed Ali Farag,
By contrast, Millie Tomlinson was the only British winner in the women’s matches as players from Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Egypt completed the women’s lineup.
Having beaten the top seed yesterday South Africa’s Alexandra Fuller produced another upset to beat Misaki Kobayashi, Amanda Landers-Murphy scored a second five-game win in a row as she beat Hollie Naughton, earning a match against compatriot and doubles partner Joelle King.
The other seeding upset came as Milou van der Heijden beat Hong Kong’s Liu Tsz Ling in four games, earning the Dutchwoman a shot against world champion Raneem El Welily.
Day ONE: Fuller and Harrity in early Hull upsets
Day one saw most of the seeded players progress, the big exception coming as women’s top seed Nadine Shahin lost out in five to South Africa’s Alexandra Fuller. In the men’s matches it was American Todd Harrity who produced the shock, beating third seed Campbell Grayson in a 77-minute five game marathon.
Changes to the PSA Tour structure mean that this is the last major event to feature qualifying, since from next season qualifying is scrapped, replaced by larger main draws -24 compared to a 16 draw or in the case of the 32 draws here, 48 draws will come in. That’s for the future though, there are still British Open slots to be grabbed for next week.
