Hong Kong Open

He’s just won his fourth Hong Kong Open title in five years, in his tenth consecutive appearance in the tournament.

Here’s Mohamed’s decade in Hong Kong ...

2009 : Lost to Amr Shabana in Round Two

2010 : Lost to Ramy Ashour in Round Two

2011 : Lost to Azlan Iskandar in Round Two

2012: Lost to Borja Golan in Round Two

2013: Lost to James Willstrop in Quarters

 2014: Beat Gregory Gaultier in the Final

2015: Beat Cameron Pilley in the Final

2016: Lost to Cameron Pilley in Round Two

2017: Beat Ali Farag in the Final

2018: Beat Ali Farag in the Final

At lunchtime on finals day there was the new traditional Junior Clinic, this year featuring Hong Kong’s Leo Au, Egypt’s world #3 Nour El Tayeb, and 200+ Hong Kong Juniors.

Hosted by Dick Leung, the pro stars went through some on court routines and conditioned games while Dick chatted away to the kids (don’t ask us what he was saying!).

Then it was time for the match, with a guest referee that won’t be on Leo’s christmas card list after awarding him an outrageous ‘no let’ on match ball to Nour (good lad!).

Some routines with the kids and a three-point challenge each for Leo and Nour against a junior (the grown ups won both #boohiss) then the big group photo to finish.

All the Photos (80+) in the Gallery 

R2: Raphael Kandra (Ger) 3-1 Cesar Salazar (Mex)   11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9 (51m)

It was ‘only’ 51 minutes, but this was the match of the tournament so far, finishing with the winner slumped on the floor, declining his opponent’s offer to help him up as he needed more time to recover from an astonishing final rally that left the large court 9 crowd applauding wildly - they would have loved a fifth.

There was a bit of controversy too, with Cesar being penalised three times for foot faulting, combined with a conduct stroke on the first of those.

Explanation : Referee Nathan Turnbull called a foot fault fairly early in the first game - “it was blatant,” he said, “I’ll always call those but the marginal ones are difficult.” [apparently someone sent in a video still and Cesar was almost over the centre line when he hit the ball].

But of course he didn’t say “Foot Fault” as all service faults - serving out, serving down, foot faulting and all the other illegal serves,  are now called simply “Fault”.

Naturally the player then asks what the problem was and the Ref will say “foot fault” - begging the question of why don’t they just call “foot fault” in the first place (and for that matter, out is out, not a fault, but don’t get me started on that one #oopstoolate) .

On Court 9 the refs are seated a few rows back, and it’s genuinely difficult to hear sometimes. Nathan says he told Cesar it was a foot fault but Cesar didn’t hear it, so approached the door so that he could better hear the explanation.

He then opened the door - to be fair he was warned not to, can’t remember by who - to hear Nathan declare “your foot was out of the box”. Meanwhile Raphael was doing a bit of stirring, pointing and saying “he opened the door!”. 

Of course, opening the door is a capital offence these days, so Nathan duly added on the conduct stroke to the faulty service and Cesar was two points worse off.

Two controversial matters in one then - personally, I don’t know anyone who thinks calling just “fault” is a good idea when “foot fault” and “out” are so obvious and simple, and the consensus I pick up is that the “don’t open the door” conduct stroke is excessive when the player is simply trying, in a non-aggressive manner, to find out what’s going on.

Anyway, enough of that - it was a very good match, Cesar got called for two more foot faults, and if you can wind the replay to the final rally you’ll definitely enjoy it!

Steve Cubbins

Hong Kong Open 2018         coverage by SquashSite

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Three-time Hong Kong Champion Ramy Ashour has withdrawn from this year’s event due to a knee injury.

His place as a 9/16 seed is taken by England’s Declan James, while Kiwi Campbell Grayson becomes a 17/32 seed and moves to face England’s George Parker, with India’s Ramit Tandon coming in to face Alan Clyne in Round One.

Hong Kong duo Annie and Leo Au - the reigning National Champions - are hoping to benefit from partisan home support at the Everbright Sun Hung Kai Hong Kong Squash Open later this month when the siblings compete at the PSA World Tour Platinum event.

The Hong Kong Open is the third Platinum tournament of the season and will take place at the Hong Kong Squash Centre between November 19-22 before moving to the Hong Kong Park Sports Centre between November 23-25.

It’s the biggest professional squash tournament to take place in Hong Kong and both Annie and Leo are hoping to channel the support of their home crowd as they look to reach the later stages of the tournament.

"When you see a lot of familiar faces and hear their cheers during the match, it feels amazing and inspires you to push even harder," said Annie.

"It’s an opportunity to play in front of the home crowd besides the nationals. I’m really looking forward and I’m ready to play my best."

Leo echoes his older sister’s thoughts and believes that playing on home soil helped inspire him to a stunning upset of defending champion Ramy Ashour at last year’s tournament.

He said: 

"It was amazing to have a good performance in front of the home crowd and also in a big tournament. Ramy Ashour is one of the legends in squash and people always enjoy watching him play, so I hope he can stay injury-free and bring more good squash to us.

"I’m always excited to play in my home country, it is the biggest PSA tournament in Hong Kong, so I'm really looking forward to that.

"I feel great playing in Hong Kong because there are always lots of people to support the local players. At the same time, the Hong Kong government, Hong Kong Sports Institute and Hong Kong Squash also contribute a lot to the local squash players, so I think these are the factors that improve my performance."

Leo wrote his name into the history books in July when he broke into the world’s top 20 alongside compatriot Max Lee, marking the first time in history that two male players from Hong Kong have achieved that milestone at the same time.

World #12 Annie, a 15-time PSA Tour title winner, has featured in the top 10 on a number of occasions and highlighted the support that Leo has given her over the years, saying: "Every time when I’ve wanted to give up, especially after a hard training session, he has always been out there with me and encouraged me to push until the end."

Annie receives a bye into the second round where she will come face to face with either US #1 Amanda Sobhy or New Zealand’s Amanda Landers-Murphy.

Leo faces Spain’s Edmon Lopez in round one, and a win for the World #22 would see him face World #8 Paul Coll in the last 32 where he will aim to cause yet another upset on home soil.

FULL DRAWS 

2018 DRAWS

Updated after injury withdrawals of Gregory Gaultier and Ramy Ashour

Hong Kong draws feature equal prize money

Title sponsored by Everbright Sun Hung Kai and presented by Hong Kong Squash the “Hong Kong Squash Open 2018”, as one of the highly anticipated sporting extravaganzas in the world, will be performed at Hong Kong Squash Centre and Hong Kong Park Sports Centre from 19 to 25 November 2018.

HK Squash are delighted that the event  has been recognized as an “M” Mark event that helps enhance the image of Hong Kong as Asia’s sports event capital. The “M” Mark awarded by the Major Sports Events Committee, symbolizing intense, spectacular and signature event in the territory sports calendar.  Introducing by PSA, the new World Tour structure will be adapted from 2018/19 season and as one of the World Tour highest ranked event, the top 30 players will return to this star- studded tournament for a tempting winning purse of HK$3.29 million and demonstrate the best squash to delight the worldwide fans.

The 2018 Everbright Sun Hung Kai Hong Kong Squash Open has committed to offering equal prize money for the first time, with $329,000 split equally between the men’s and women’s draws. This means that every Platinum tournament on the PSA Tour that runs a men and women’s event simultaneously - comprising the U.S. Open, Tournament of Champions, El Gouna International, British Open and now the Hong Kong Open - have all committed to equal prize money.

The World No 1 and defending champion Mohamed Elshorbagy heads up the men’s draw, the “Egyptian Beast” is seeded to meet the World No.2 Ali Farag in a mouthwatering final encounter while, local top players, the World No.14 Max Lee, World No. 22 Leo Au and World No. 27 Yip Tsz Fung will join the battlefield along with the wildcard holders Henry Leung and Wong Chi Him.

For the women’s event, the world No.1 and defending champion Nour El Sherbini tops the draw while the current world champion Raneem El Welily occupies the following seeding. The local highest ranked player, Annie Auwho gets back to top 10 this month receives a bye into the round two to meet either Amanda Sobhy or Amanda Landers Murphy whereas her fellows Joey Chan, Liu Tsz Ling, Tong Tsz Wing and two wildcard holders Vanessa Chu and Lee Ka Yi will feature in the opening round.

Mr. David Mui, MH JP, Chairman of Hong Kong Squash attended the ceremony along with the honorable guests included Mr. Yeung Tak-keung, Commissioner for Sports of Home Affairs Bureau, Mr. Li Bingtao, Executive Director & CEO of Everbright Sun Hung Kai, Mr. Karl Kwok Chi Leung, MH, Chairman of Major Sports Events Committee, Mr. Duncan Chiu, Vice Chairman and Mr. Cedric Tyen, Honorary Secretary of Hong Kong Squash, Miss Tammy Ou-Yang and Miss Ng Ka Yee of TVB artists and other co-sponsors representatives to give their supports and anticipation for the yearly tournament.