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15-Feb, Final:
Tuominen Finnish Open
Champion again ...
Poku Salo reports
Olli Tuominen defended successfully his Finnish Open title in
Mikkeli on Sunday. The match ended in the fourth game when Stewart
Boswell had to retire with a back injury.
The match started with Boswell keeping the ball close to the wall
and hitting good length. Rallies were long, but they mostly ended in
Boswell's favour. In The third game Olli came back strongly and
managed to get more accuracy in his shots and got control of the
game. At 6-4 Olli managed to win the longest rally of the match and
that seemed to change the game. In the fourth at 2-1 to Olli Boswell
got a three minutes injury break and returned to court only to
retire four point later.
Olli was of course happy with the victory and the points earned, but
at the same time sad it had to be this way.
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 Savcor
Finnish Open 2009
10-15 Feb, Mikkeli, Finland, $25k |
Round One
12 Feb |
Quarters
13 Feb |
Semis
14 Feb |
Final
15 Feb |
[1]
Stewart Boswell (Aus)
11/8 10/12 11/6 11/6 (56m)
[Q] Gilly Lane (Usa) |
[1] Stewart Boswell
11/6 11/7 11/9 (64m)
[6] Davide Bianchetti |
[1] Stewart Boswell
12/14 11/6 11/0 11/2 (60m)
[7]
Omar Abdel Aziz |
[1] Stewart Boswell
4/11, 5/11, 11/9, 6/1 rtd (47m)
[2] Olli Tuominen |
[6]
Davide Bianchetti (Ita)
11/7 11/5 11/8 (43m)
Henrik Mustonen (Fin) |
[3]
Hisham Ashour (Egy)
11/7 11/2 5/11 11/5 (32m)
[Q] Rob Sutherland (Wal) |
[3] Hisham Ashour
11/9 11/5 11/5 (44m)
[7]
Omar Abdel Aziz |
[7]
Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy)
11/7 14/12 11/8 (47m)
[Q] Clinton Leeuw (Rsa) |
[Q] Yann Perrin (Fra)
11/6 11/6 10/12 7/11 11/7 (66m)
[5] Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egy) |
[5] Mohamed El Shorbagy
11/13 11/8 10/12 11/1 11/8 (76m)
[4] Omar Mosaad |
[4] Omar Mosaad 8/11 7/11 11/5
11/4 11/4 (44m)
[2] Olli Tuominen |
Amr
Swelim (Egy)
7/11 11/6 11/5 8/11 11/9 (64m
[4] Omar Mosaad (Egy) |
Jesse Engelbrecht (Rsa)
11/6 11/3 11/6 (26m)
[8] Mark Krajcsak (Hun) |
[8] Mark Krajcsak
11/1 8/11 11/6 11/4 (34m)
[2] Olli Tuominen |
Simon Rosner (Ger)
11/7 8/11 11/2 11/3 (36m)
[2] Olli Tuominen (Fin) |
11-fev-2009 - Qualifiers finals:
Rob Sutherland WAL bt Bradley Hindle AUS
9/11 11/7 11/9 6/11 11/6 (75m)
Clinton Leeuw RSA bt John Rooney IRL
11/2 8/11 6/11 11/1 11/5 (68m)
Gilly Lane USA bt Shaun Le Roux ENG
9/11 11/8 11/9 14/16 11/4 (86m)
Yann Perrin FRA bt Matthieu Castagnet FRA
8/11 3/11 11/9 11/1 5/1 rtd (60m)
10-fev 2009 - Qualifiers first round:
Bradley Hindle AUS bye
Rob Sutherland WAL - Gregoire Marche FRA
9/11 11/4 16/14 11/6 (54m)
John Rooney IRL - Jens Schoor GER
11/6 9/11 7/11 11/7 11/4 (75m)
Clinton Leeuw RSA - Markus Vanhanen FIN
11/8 11/4 11/4 (30m)
Shaun Le Roux ENG - Heikki Kononen FIN
11/2 11/8 11/3 (17m)
Gilly Lane USA - Matias Tuomi FIN
11/6 12/10 13/11 (42m)
Yann Perrin FRA - Lauri Valtola FIN
11/5 11/8 11/6 (27m)
Matthieu Castagnet FRA bye
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2008
Event |
14-Feb, Semis:
Boswell and Tuominen in the final
Poku Salo reports
Boswell and Tuominen in the final
Top seeded Sewart Boswell and And Olli Tuominen will play in Sundays
final of the Savcor Finnish Open in Mikkeli.
In the first semi Boswell got a good start and took an early 6-2
lead although he didn't look to be playing at his best. Abdel took
advantage of the situation and equalled the score at 8-8 and got his
first game ball at 10-8 and won the game 14-12. Boswell increased
the tempo in the second and that changed the game. Abdel had a 5-3
lead, but after that it was all Boswell on court and Abdel only
managed to win three more points in the rest of the match.
In the final Boswell plays the defending champion Olli Tuominen.
Olli's tactics of keeping the ball alive in the beginning of the
match didn't work very well. Rallies were short and Omar Mosaad
managed to hit lots of winners taking a two games lead. The pace had
anyway been a little bit too much for Mosaad. With two five games
matches in the earlier rounds he started to get tired. Olli got his
confidence back and put more pressure on Mosaad, who couldn't keep
up. Olli went on to take the three last games and a place in
Sunday's final.
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13-Feb, Quarters:
Quarter-Finals in Mikkeli
Poku Salo reports
The night started with the number one seed Stewart Boswell playing
against last year's finalist Davide Bianchetti. The Australian was
all the time ahead and didn't give Bianchetti much chances of a
surprise. He kept the ball to a good length and controlled the pace
throughout the match and took a comfortable 3-0 victory.
In the second match seventh seed Omar Abdel Aziz had a good night
and never let third seeded Hisham Ashour inti the match. A strong
performance by Abdel, who will meet Boswell in the semis.
 The
much awaited match between Omar Mosaad and Mohamed El Shorbagy
proved to be as exiting as expected. The first three games were as
even as can be but Shorbagy took two of them.
In the fourth Mosaad was at his strongest and gave away only one
point. His dominance continued in the fifth game and he got to a 7-3
lead but Shorbagy came back strongly and took the five following
points and was leading 8-7. Then again the fortunes changed and
Mosaad took four point and the match.
 Home
favourite Olli Tuominen played much the same as in the first round.
He started strongly and took the first game 11-1. In the second he
again lost his concentration and let Mark Krajcsak come into the
game.
A few unforced errors by Olli and a few good winners by Mark decided
the game in Marks favour. This was the wake up call for Olli and
when he came back on court he there was no questions about who would
be the winner.
Tuominen plays Mosaad in the semis and has to be considered the
favourite. In Mosaad's words "Olli is very strong and I have had two
hard five games matches".
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12-Feb, Round One:
Seeds survive in Mikkeli
Poku Salo reports
All seeded players made their way to the quarter finals of the
Finnish Open.
Number one seed Stewart Boswell lost the second game but was never
in any real danger. Last year's finalist Davide Bianchetti was too
strong for Europe's number one junior Henrik Mustonen. Bianchetti
took a straight game victory and plays Boswell in the quarters.
Hisham Ashour didn't have too much trouble in beating qualifier Rob
Sutherland, although Sutherland took the third. Omar Abdel Aziz, who
will meet Ashour on Friday, was all the time a step ahead of Clinton
Leeuw.
World Junior Champion Mohamed El Shorbagy started well and took the
two first games against Yann Perrin. In the third, at 9-7 down,
Shorbagy got a cut on his left eyebrow and came back on court with a
bandage around his head. Perrin took the game and surprisingly also
the fourth. In the fifth Shorbagy took an early 7-1 lead and went on
to win the game 11-7.
In the shortest match of the day Hungarian Mark Krajcsak never gave
Jesse Engelbrecht any chances and won clearly 3-0.
The home favourite Olli Tuominen, who last year was in trouble with
SImon Rosner, showed that he is in for the fight for a second
Finnish title. In the second game Olli was too eager and made easy
mistakes which cost him the game. In the third and fourth games Olli
got his game together and Simon only scored five points.
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11-Feb, Qualifying Finals:
Seeds fall in Savcor qualifying
Poku Salo reports
All four top seeded qualifiers were defeated in the qualifying
finals of the Savcor Finnish Open in Mikkeli on Wednesday.
After four five games-matches and nearly five hours of squash the
qualifiers were Gilly Lane USA, Rob Sutherland WAL, Clinton Leeuw
RSA and Yann Perrin FRA. The night was full of exitement and good
squash but the drama started in the last match when Matthieu
Castagnet was two games up and two points from victory and something
happened in his left leg. He tried to continue but at 5-1 in the
fifth he had to concede the match.
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Tuominen set for
Savcor title defence
Preview from Poku Salo
The Savcor Finnish Open starts on Thursday February 12th with the
strongest field since 1991, when Rodney Eyles beat Sami Elopuro in
the final. The Finnish number one and second seed Olli Tuominen
believes that last year's professionally run tournament has
attracted such a strong field for this years event.
The number one seed is Stewart Boswell from Australia who is
ranked 19th. Egypt, which at the moment is the top nation in squash,
has six players in the main draw. Among them the 18 year old World
Junior Champion Mohamed El Shorbagy.
 Tuominen
comes to Mikkeli well prepared and ready to defend his title from
last year. He didn't even enter the Swedish Open in order to be at
his best in Mikkeli. "I have been able to get good practice for
quite a while and the good feeling has also shown in my game. If I
can keep my patience and determination I will go far in the
tournament," said Olli at the press conference on Thursday.
The second Finn in the main draw is European Junior number one
Henrik Mustonen. "Heke" is ranked 161 and plays as a wild card.
He will meet last year's runner up Davide Bianchetti in the
first round. "I'm happy to play Davide, because nobody wants to play
an Egyptian in the first round," was "Heke's" comment about the
draw.
The qualification will start on Tuesday 12th February with 12 PSA
and 4 local contenders.
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