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21-Feb,
Finals:
Kitchen & Meuller take
NSC titles in KL
 The
latest - and biggest - of the NSC Series tournaments saw two new
winners in Kuala Lumpur.
New Zealand's Shelley Kitchen justified her top seeding, but
it took the Kiwi number one an hour to see off second seeded Hong
Kong youngster Annie Au. The victory marked Kitchen's 13th
WISPA title, but her first for over twelve months.
 The
men's final was significant for the absence of seeded players, and
it was Switzerland's Nicolas Mueller who became the surprise
winner after Abdullah Al Mezayen was forced to retire during
the fourth game of the match with Mueller leading 2/1 and 5/0.
Having won the Russian Opportunities Fund in December, the victory
doubles the young Swiss's career tally.
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 NSC
Series #1 2009 (L)
16-21 Feb, Kuala Lumpur, $16k |
Round One
18 Feb |
Quarters
19 Feb |
Semis
20 Feb |
Final
21 Feb |
[1]
Shelley Kitchen (Nzl)
11/4, 11/2, 11/2 (25m)
Yan Xin Tan (Mas) |
[1] Shelley Kitchen
12/10, 11/9, 9/11, 11/5 (38m)
[8] Joey Chan |
[1] Shelley Kitchen
11/3, 11/6, 11/2 (22m)
[4] Delia Arnold |
[1] Shelley Kitchen
13/11, 11/7, 5/11, 11/9 (59m)
[2] Annie Au |
[8]
Joey Chan (Hkg)
11/6, 11/4, 7/11, 11/5 (35m)
Lim Woke Yah (Mas) |
[4] Delia Arnold (Mas)
11/5, 11/9, 11/5 (37m)
[Q] Maria Toor Pakay (Pak) |
[4] Delia Arnold
18/16, 11/6, 9/11, 11/6 (67m)
[5] Lauren Siddall |
[5]
Lauren Siddall (Eng)
11/9, 12/10, 11/8 (37m)
[Q] Birgit Coufal (Aut) |
Sitih Munirah Jusoh (Mas)
11/8, 11/3, 11/8 (25m)
[6] Emma Beddoes (Eng) |
[6] Emma Beddoes
11/7, 13/11, 11/9 (27m)
[3] Sharon Wee |
[6] Emma Beddoes 9/11, 11/2,
11/9, 11/6 (51m)
[2] Annie Au |
[Q] Nessrine Ariffin (Mas)
11/6, 11/3, 11/3 (19m)
[3] Sharon Wee (Mas) |
[Q] Olga Ertlova (Cze)
9/11, 11/4, 12/10, 11/4 (39m)
[7] Low Wee Wern (Mas) |
[7] Low Wee Wern
11/9, 11/8, 11/3 (39m)
[2] Annie Au |
Adel
Weir (Rsa)
11/7, 11/7, 11/5 (23m)
[2] Annie Au (Hkg) |
17-Feb,
Qualifying:
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 NSC
Series #1 2009 (L)
16-21 Feb, Kuala Lumpur, $10k |
Round One
18 Feb |
Quarters
19 Feb |
Semis
20 Feb |
Final
21 Feb |
[1]
Aaron Frankcomb (Aus)
11/8, 11/7, 11/4 (37m)
Choong Kam Hing (Mas) |
[1] Aaron Frankcomb
11/4, 11/9, 9/11, 11/4 (69m)
[Q] Alan Clyne |
[1] Aaron Frankcomb
5/11, 17/15, 5/11, 11/6, 11/3 (75m)
Nicolas Mueller |
Nicolas Mueller
13/15, 11/5, 11/9, 5/0 rtd (23m)
[Q] Abdullah Al Mezayen |
[5]
Dylan Bennett (Ned)
7/11, 11/9, 11/9, 13/11 (46m)
[Q] Alan Clyne (Sco) |
[3]
Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind)
11/5, 14/16, 11/7, 11/7 (45m)
[Q] Waqar Mehboob (Pak) |
[Q] Waqar Mehboob
11/6, 11/6, 11/5 (30m)
Nicolas Mueller |
[7]
Shamsul Islam Khan (Pak)
11/7, 11/2, 11/8 (27m)
Nicolas Mueller (Sui) |
[Q] Ivan Yuen (Mas)
11/6, 8/11, 11/7, 11/8 (46m)
[8] Matthew Karwalski (Aus) |
[8] Matthew Karwalski
11/7, 11/6, 11/9 (33m)
[Q] Abdullah Al Mezayen |
[Q] Abdullah Al Mezayen 11/8,
7/11, 11/5, 11/6 (48m)
[2] Ali Anwar Reda |
[Q] Abdullah Al Mezayen (Kuw)
11/5, 6/11, 8/11, 11/6, 11/4 (56m)
[4] Chris Simpson (Eng) |
Nafzahizam Adnan (Mas)
7/11, 3/11, 11/6, 11/6, 11/8 (64m)
[6] Muhd Asyraf Azan (Mas) |
[6] Muhd Asyraf Azan
11/8, 11/9, 11/9 (38m)
[2] Ali Anwar Reda |
Siddarth Suchde (Ind)
6/11, 11/8, 3/11, 11/6, 11/8 (70m)
[2] Ali Anwar Reda (Egy) |
17-Feb, Qualifying:
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20-Feb,
Semis:
Surprise Men's Final in KL
While the Women's final
of the NSC Series #1 event will be between the top two seeds, the
men's finals will be between a qualifier and an unseeded player.
New Zealand's Shelley Kitchen ended the last hope of home
success as the top seed beat Delia Arnold in straight games to reach
the final, where she will meet second seed Annie Au after the
Hong Kong youngster got the better of England's Emma Beddoes in a
lengthy four-game semi-final.
In the men's event both top seeds crashed out at the semi-final
stage. Australian top seed Aaron Frankcomb led Switzerland's
Nicolas Mueller 2/1 but the unseeded former European Junior
Champion fought back to win in five, reaching his third PSA final in
the process.
His opponent will be Kuwaiti qualifier Abdullah Al Mezayen,
who beat Ali Anwar Reda, the second seeded Egyptian who already has
three NSC titles to his name. Coincidentally this will also be Al
Mezayen's third PSA final.
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18-Feb, Round One:
New Name for NSC
Over the last couple of years the NSC series of tournaments
in Malaysia's National Squash Centre has grown and grown, providing
some good competition and points/prize money earning potential for
players from around the world but particularly in Asia.
It's a good initiative and this year sees it growing again, with 10
events scheduled, each one featuring a men's and women's draw.
The biggest problem though was what to call them - last year we had
"Satellite" and "Super Satellite" events, and as of this year for
the Men "Star" events, but for the Women these new larger events
were called "Tour" (Tour 8, Tour 12 etc ...).
To make it even trickier each class of event was numbered #1, #2
etc.
So the current tournament was originally the WISPA NSC Tour 12 #1
& PSA NSC Star 1 #1 ... and next week's was the WISPA NSC
Tour 8 #1 & PSA NSC Super Satellite #1 .... early
in March comes the KL Open, then the next NSC Events, the Super
Satellite #2 ... followed the week after by the Star #2 &
Tour #3 event ...
Confused? You bet we were ...
In desperation we tried to denote them using sizes - S, M, L, XL etc
- but now comes the news that PSA & WISPA have agreed to just call
them the NSC Series, going from #1 to #10.
Thank heavens for that ...
Qualifiers Cash in
Meanwhile, on the court, the women's event saw all eight seeds
through to the quarter-finals but there were upsets aplenty in the
men's first round as qualifiers Alan Clyne, Waqar Mehboob and
Abdullah Al Mezayen were joined in the quarters by unseeded
Nicolas Mueller.
Top seeds Aaron Frankcomb and Ali Anwar Reda are still
in the hunt though ...
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