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Merredin International 2007
11 - 13 May, Australia, $3.5k |
'Unknown' takes the
title in Perth
Andrew Dent reports
Unknown New South Welshman Matthew Karwalski caused a
massive upset when he won the Merredin International in the
West Australian wheat belt centre of Merredin on Sunday.
Karwalski won his maiden PSA event in his first ever final when he
beat top seeded Scott Arnold 3/1 in 45 minutes.
The 21-year-old from Newcastle is ranked a lowly 261 in the world
and had only played three main tour events before this year’s
Merredin International. He joined the tour this time last year but
said he had spent the past 12 months training at his base at the
Raymond Terrace Squash Centre just north of Newcastle preparing to
make a serious tilt at the professional circuit.
His performance this week came as a surprise even to Karwalski,
who beat four higher ranked players on the way to the title. He
has played fellow New South Welshman Arnold numerous times in the
junior ranks and had never before beaten him.
Karwalski will stay in Perth for the
City of Joondalup Open starting Thursday and the WA Open the
following week before heading to the mini-tour in South Australia,
which culminates in the Australian Open in early July.
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 "Scott
always had the upper hand as juniors. I also played him three
weeks ago in a warm-up tournament and he beat me 3-0 quite
comfortably.
"It was very tough this week the whole way through,"I was lucky to
make it through the first match against Kristen (Johnson). There
were two long games in that match that could have gone either way.
"I'm not going to get carried away, since I only just scraped into
qualifying for next week's tournament, but I’m on top of the world
at the moment!"
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 Merredin
International 2007
11 - 13 May, Australia, $3.5k |
Round One
12 May |
Quarters
12 May |
Semis
13 May |
Final
13 May |
[1] Scott Arnold (Aus)
11/0, 11/2, 11/7
Tim Cowell (Aus) |
Scott Arnold
11/5, 11/6, 11/4
Chris Truswell |
Scott Arnold
11/2, 11/5, 11/4
Nathan stevenson |
Scott Arnold
7/11, 11/8, 11/4, 13/11 (45m)
Matthew Karwalski |
[6] Chris Truswell Eng)
11/7, 11/5, 11/5
[Q] Aaron Fyfe |
[3] Joseph Desira (Aus)
11/9, 12/10, 11/13, 4/11, 11/4
[Q] Will Newnham (Eng) |
Joseph Desira
11/8, 9/11, 12/10, 11/6
Nathan stevenson |
[5] Chris Tasker-Grindley (Eng)
11/4, 5/11, 11/7, 11/8
Nathan stevenson (Aus) |
[Q] Paul Ratcliff
11/3, 11/6, 5/11, 11/6
[7] Justin Beard (Aus) |
Justin Beard
11/8, 11/9, 9/11, 12/10
Jacob Lohrisch |
Jacob Lohrisch
11/5, 9/11, 11/7, 11/8
Matthew Karwalski |
[Q] Chris Lark
11/4, 11/5, 11/6
[4] Jacob Lohrisch (Aus) |
Matthew Karwalski (Aus)
11/1, 7/11, 12/10, 13/11
[8] Kristen Johnson (Sco) |
Matthew Karwalski
9/11, 11/8, 11/6, 11/5
Stephen Robinson |
Stephen Robinson
8/11, 11/7, 12/10, 11/5
[2] Sam Atkins (Nzl) |
Surprise semi-finalists in Perth
Andrew Dent reports
Unseeded players Matthew Karwalski and Nathan Stevenson are the
surprise semi-finalists at the Merredin OInternational in Perth.
Karwalski beat eighth seeded Kristen Johnson of Scotland in the
first round on Friday then followed that up with a quarter-final
victory over Steven Robinson, while Stevenson ousted fifth seed
Chris Tasker-Grindley in the first round before upsetting third
seeded Joseph Desira.
Stevenson will now play top seed Scott Arnold from Sydney, who
cruised into the semi-finals with two straightforward wins, while
Karwalksi takes on fourth seed Jacob Lohrisch.
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