Egypt’s Mohamed El-Beiali and Russia’s Alexander Shibaev were the
players to cause the upsets in the first round of the Men’s Singles
event at the Morocco Open in Rabat on Wednesday 8th July 2009.
Both
negotiated the qualification stage in style and both ended the
adventures of players who had received direct entries to the main draw.
The
ebullient Mohamed El-Beiali defeated Spain’s Marc Duran, the no.10
seed; whilst Alexander Shibaev overcame Austria’s Christoph Simoner,
the no.9 seed.
Score Lines
Mohamed
El-Beiali won 11-9, 10-12, 11-6, 6-11, 2-11, 11-9, 11-7; whilst
Alexander Shibaev recovered from a two games to nil deficit to succeed
8-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8, 11-7.
Defeats for two seeded players but there were no problems for the very highly rated.
Top Three Seeds Win
Vladimir
Samsonov of Belarus, seeded no.1, defeated Nouradin Muktar of Djibouti
in four straight games whilst by the same margin, Belgium’s Jean-Michel
Saive, seeded no.2, ended the hopes of Soufiane Harb in similar style.
Russia’s
Maxim Shmyryev, seeded no.3, beat the host nation’s Tirselt Mounaim
without the loss of a single game but for the next in line, absence
meant defeat.
Xu Gang of France received a walk-over against Egypt’s Ahmed Ali Saleh.
Successes
Almed
Ali Saleh was the only one of the top eight seeded players not to book
a second round place. Players seeded no.5 to no.10 all progressed
without due alarm.
Spain’s Carlos Machado and Alfredo Carneros
plus Egypt’s El-Sayed Lashin and France’s Armand Phung all enjoyed
opening round wins.
Further Wins
In
addition, in the top half of the draw there were wins for Russia’s
Mikhail Paykov. France’s Loïc Bobillier and Russia’s Evgueny Petrukhin;
whilst in the lower half there was success for Bulgaria’s Stanislav
Golovanov and for the Belgian duo of Yannick Vostes and Benjamin
Rogiers.
Men’s Doubles
Success
for the favourites in the Men’s Singles event and also in the Men’s
Doubles where the top two seeded pairs both secured comfortable opening
round victories.
Austria’s Matias Habesohn and Christoph
Simoner, seeded no.1, defeated Morocco’s Abderrahmane Chokry and Mouad
Rouayi in four straight games; whilst Belgium’s Benjamin Rogiers and
Yannick Vostes succeeded by a similar margin against Morocco’s Tirselt
Mounaim and France’s Xu Gang.
Source: www.ittf.com
