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Update day one: Seamaster 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum Lion Japan Open
Third seeds fall
Korea Republic’s Cho Daeseong and Shin Yubin caused the biggest upset in the opening round of the mixed doubles event; they beat Hong Kong’s Ho Kwan Kit and Lee Ho Ching, the no.3 seeds (9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9).
Success for Cho Daeseong and Shin Yubin followed success for colleagues, Lee Sangsu and Jeon Jihee, the top seeds. They beat Serbia’s Aleksandar Karakasevic and Izabela Lupulesku (11-6, 13-11, 4-11, 11-5).
Chinese and Japanese pairs make fine starts
Fan Zhendong and Ding Ning made a positive start to their campaign as did Chinese national team colleagues Xu Xin and Zhu Yuling. In the opening round of the mixed doubles event Fan Zhendong and Ding Ning beat Hungary’s Adam Szudi and Szandra Pergel (11-4, 8-11, 11-7, 11-4); Xu Xin and Zhu Yuling, the no.5 seeds, beat India’s Sharath Kamal Achanta and Manika Batra (11-8, 11-7, 11-5).
Likewise, Japan’s Koki Niwa and Mima Ito, the no.8 seeds, overcame Puerto Rico’s Brian Afanador and Adriana Diaz(11-6, 11-9, 11-13, 11-9); Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata received a walk-over when scheduled to face Slovakia’s Lubomir Pistej and Tatiana Kukulkova, the no.7 seeds.
Seamaster 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum Lion Japan Open: Main Draw Schedule – Friday 14th – Sunday 16th June
Momen gets The Bullet as Abouelghar reaches World Tour Finals showdown against Gawad
Flat out: Mohamed Abouelghar takes it lying down after beating Tarek Momen for the first time to reach the final in Cairo
Serme sinks Gohar to fly the flag for France (and the rest of the world)
By ALAN THATCHER and SEAN REUTHE
Mohamed Abouelghar gained his first win over Tarek Momen and Camille Serme, the only non-Egyptian in the semi-finals, beat Nouran Gohar after a titanic first-game tiebreak to reach the finals of the CIB PSA World Tour Finals end-of-season spectacular in Cairo.
There will be a new name on the trophy in both the men’s and women’s events as World No.4 Karim Abdel Gawad and World No.7 Abouelghar booked their final berths at the expense of defending champion Mohamed ElShorbagy and World No.3 Momen.
World Tour Finals debutant Abouelghar claimed his first victory over Momen at the 10th attempt to reach the biggest final of his career, continuing what has been a superb week for the 25-year-old so far.
Abouelghar, the lowest seeded player in the men’s event, finished top of Group A ahead of Gawad and World No.1 Ali Farag, and he played some scintillating squash to recover from a game down to beat Momen, despite five previous defeats to his compatriot this season.
Momen squeezed home in the opening game but Abouelghar dominated the second with an array of devastating attacking play, hitting nicks and slicing crosscourt kills and drops that forced Momen into awkward stretches and lunges.
After a tense opening phase to the third game, Abouelghar enjoyed a crucial spell of dominance to reach match ball at 10-6. He tinned a volley which would have wrapped it up and Momen closed the gap to a couple of points before an error gave the match to his younger opponent.
Abouelghar, known as The Bullet, used his array of skills and deception to break up the rhythm of the match and keep Momen guessing where the ball was going. In the first game, Abouelghar made too many mistakes. That error count was reduced as he continued to attack and he was rewarded with a magnificent victory in front of an animated home crowd.
“10-0 would have looked so bad,” said 25-year-old Abouelghar afterwards. “I had to make the gap closer between me and Tarek, at least. For people who don’t know, I have not beaten Tarek in training, so to come here and win against him on a big stage like this is a bonus, and I’m very happy. I lost to Tarek five times this season… every time I played him I felt like I was closer, and I’m happy with the way I managed it until the end.”
Abouelghar defeated Gawad 2-0 yesterday (June 12) to top their group and the form book is in the younger Egyptian’s favour, with that victory being the most recent in a three-match win streak.
Karim Abdel Gawad (left) gets in front of Mohamed ElShorbagy
ElShorbagy had won the two previous instalments of the World Tour Finals, and he started well in his fixture with Gawad as he took an early lead in the opener, before four uncharacteristic errors from the 28-year-old handed Gawad a one-game advantage.
Gawad then powered to victory in the second game, dropping just two points to advance to the final of this tournament for the first time. The victory also continues Gawad’s impressive form on home soil, with the 27-year-old claiming major titles at the Black Ball Open and PSA World Championships in Cairo in recent years.
“It’s very unexpected, getting married on Friday and now being in the final of the World Tour Finals,” said Gawad.
“When you’re married on the Friday, you don’t expect too much to do at the tournament and you don’t want to go on court, but once you get here and on court and you see everyone cheering for you, it gives you a lot of power. You just relax and play your best squash. I’m really happy to be in the finals and to be playing in Egypt tomorrow.”
Camille Serme celebrates reaching the final
France’s Serme avenged her British Open final defeat to World No.4 Gohar on semi-finals day at the season-ending event taking place in Cairo’s Mall of Arabia.
Serme will be the first female French player ever to appear in the finals of this tournament after she ended a four-match losing streak to Gohar to win 20-18, 11-9 in an enthralling 37-minute affair.
The World No.3 had lost to Gohar just three weeks ago in the final of the prestigious British Open and hadn’t beaten the Egyptian since the 2016-2017 PSA World Tour Finals, which was held under a best-of-three games format.
Today’s semi-finals used that same format, and it was Serme who emerged victorious again, with a crucial victory in a mammoth first game laying the platform for her progression into the final, where the 30-year-old from Créteil will play World No.1 and two-time runner-up Raneem El Welily.
“I feel over the moon,” said Serme. “Obviously they [the crowd] were cheering for the home Egyptian player, but I’m just so happy because Nouran has been playing really well the last few months. In El Gouna and at the British she beat me quite comfortably, and I was happy today that I found some good solutions.
“I’m very proud and very lucky to have had a few friends here clapping for me. I know a lot of people were watching at home, my husband, family and friends, so I just thought about them. Even Philippe [Signoret], my coach – I’m really happy for them as well. It’s funny to play against Raneem again as we played in the pool matches. I can have a second chance in the same tournament, so I’m just going to enjoy and give it my all.”
Shot of the night from Raneem El Welily as she plays the ball between her legs in a huge battle against Nour El Tayeb which she finished in style
El Welily remains undefeated in the tournament as she followed up a first place finish in Group A with a 2-1 victory over World No.5 Nour El Tayeb, winning 11-9, 9-11, 11-1. The opening two games were closely-contested as the Egyptian duo enraptured the crowd with some sensational rallies that saw each player pushed into all four corners of the court.
But El Welily was sublime in the third game as she blew El Tayeb away, dropping just a solitary point to set up a mouthwatering final encounter with Serme. El Welily defeated Serme 2-1 in the group stages of this tournament three days ago and has won 16 of their 19 meetings on the PSA World Tour, including the last six in a row.
“I think I just tried to be more active [in the third] rather than being passive in the second,” said El Welily ahead of her ninth final of the season.
“She played really well and pushed me to the back and then dragged me to the front to make the gap seem big. I’m glad with the way I fought in the second, I came all the way back to 9-10 and couldn’t quite make it, but it made a difference somehow, so I’m very happy to come out as the winner today. Hopefully tomorrow I play some good squash and if I win, I’ll be very happy.”
The finals of the CIB PSA World Tour Finals will revert to the traditional best-of-five games scoring format, with play commencing at 19:30 (GMT+2). Both matches will be shown live on SQUASHTV (rest of world), Eurosport Player (Europe only), the official Facebook page of the PSA World Tour (Indian subcontinent only) and ON Sport (Egypt).
For more information on the CIB PSA World Tour Finals, visit the tournament website.
CIB PSA World Tour Finals 2019, Mall of Arabia, 6th of October City, Cairo, Egypt.
Men’s Semi-Finals:
[4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt [2] Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY) 2-0: 11-8, 11-2 (28m)
[8] Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) bt [3] Tarek Momen (EGY) 2-1: 9-11, 11-5, 11-8 (55m)
Women’s Semi-Finals:
[1] Raneem El Welily (EGY) bt [3] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) 2-1: 11-9, 9-11, 11-1 (38m)
[4] Camille Serme (FRA) bt [6] Nouran Gohar (EGY) 2-0: 20-18, 11-9 (37m)
Men’s Final:
[4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) v [8] Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY)
Women’s Final:
[1] Raneem El Welily (EGY) v [4] Camille Serme (FRA)
Tournament website here
Pictures courtesy of PSA
ZEBULON, Ga. – World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series regular Chris Madden has departed Skyline Motorsports, effective immediately.
Replacing him at Skyline Motorsports aboard the Greg Bruening-owned car will be 2015 World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series champion Shane Clanton, who will make his debut with the team during the Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway.
Clanton will be teammates with Decorah, Iowa’s Tyler Bruening.
“I’ve been working with Tyler and Greg Bruening for the past few years, and they are some great people,” said Clanton. “It’s an honor to have the opportunity to take the Bennett Explosives No. 25 Bruening Rock Products/Capital Race Car on the road with the World of Outlaws for the remainder of this season and beyond.”
Many of Clanton’s existing sponsors, including Super K Express, Freeman Plumbing, Advanced Transportation, M&S Concrete and Carolina Concrete Finishers will be on board for his new ride with Skyline Motorsports.
“They’ve got some awesome sponsors, and I’ve got some great ones as well, and we’re going to join forces,” Clanton continued. “I definitely want to thank Ron Davies and everyone at Weldbank Energy for their support over the past few years. This is a definite win-win for everyone involved.”
Clanton will compete in his own Weldbank Energy No. 25 Capital Race Car this Saturday night in a $15,000-to-win, Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event at Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain Speedway.
Following the event at Smoky Mountain Speedway, he’ll make the transition into his Skyline Motorsports No. 25 Bruening Rock Products/ Bennett Explosives/ Super K Express/ Capital Race Car/Clements Racing Engine Super Late Model as he gets ready for next weekend’s Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway.
Skyline Motorsports looks forward to the new partnership.
“We wish Chris [Madden] nothing but the best in his future endeavors,” a statement from Skyline Motorsports noted. “Everyone at Skyline Motorsports is excited to have Shane [Clanton] on board as a team driver, and we can’t wait to see what the future will hold for our partnership.”
Madden is currently fifth in the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series standings, with Clanton currently ranked sixth.
Madden has not announced his plans for the rest of the season.
LE MANS, France – Toyota has locked out the front row for the 87th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe.
The field for the historic 24-hour race will be led by by the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.
At the wheel for the pole winning 3:15.497 lap was Kobayashi, who earned the second Le Mans pole of his career, though he came up short of breaking his qualifying record that he set in 2017.
“I am happy to be on pole again here,” Kobayashi said. “Actually I was hoping I could improve on my 2017 lap record but I was missing a little bit of time. Two years ago the track conditions and traffic were perfect; it wasn’t quite the same this time. But it’s a great feeling to be on pole and now we put all our effort to get the result on Sunday afternoon.”
Starting second will be the No. 8 Toyota entry driven by two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. The trio, who were .411 of a second shy of the No. 7 Toyota entry, are the defending winners at Le Mans.
“I feel good with the result; it’s job done for us,” said Alonso. “We wanted to get both Toyota’s on the front row and we managed it. The privateers were very close but we performed well to stay ahead and also get ready for the weekend. It’s always tough to race for 24 hours so we will prepare ourselves well on Friday and be ready for the fight.”
SMP Racing’s No. 17 qualified third with Egor Orudzhev at the wheel. He’ll share the car with Stéphane Sarrazin and Sergey Sirotkin.
In LMP2, the Graff squad snatched the top spot with a best lap of 3:25.073 courtesy of Tristan Gommendy. He’ll share the Graff Oreca 07-Gibson with Vincent Capillaire and Jonathan Hirschi.
TDS Racing’s Loic Duval, François Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere will start second in the LMP2 class.
In the GTE Pro division, Aston Martin Racing’s Marco Sorensen put the British brand on the class pole with a lap of 3:48.000. He’ll be joined in the No. 95 entry by Nicki Thiim and Darren Turner.
Second in GTE Pro is the No. 67 Ford GT driven by Harry Tincknell, Andy Priaulx and Jonathan Bomarito. Corvette Racing’s No. 63 entry driven by Antonio García, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller qualified third in class.
Lastly, Porsche swept the top-three positions in GTE Am. Matteo Cairoli led the way for Dempsey-Proton Racing, topping the charts with a 3:51.439. He’ll share the No. 88 Porsche with Satoshi Hoshino and Giorgio Roda.
'Lucky break' propels Schauffele to closing eagle, 66
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Even Xander Schauffele’s mis-hits turned out OK Thursday at the U.S. Open.
Schauffele was cruising along at 3 under par when he toed his tee shot on the par-5 finishing hole. His ball appeared destined for the water, but his ball kicked off a rock and skittered down the fairway, leaving just 168 yards to the flag. He hit an 8-iron to 12 feet and poured in the eagle putt to post 66, tied for the early lead with Rickie Fowler and Louis Oosthuizen.
“Very fortunate and happy we capitalized on a really lucky break,” he said.
This is just Schauffele’s 10th career major start, but he continues to impress in the game’s biggest events. The 25-year-old has missed just one cut with four top-6 finishes, including a tie for second earlier this year at the Masters. He tied for 16th last month at the PGA Championship.
“The mentality changes, a little more focused coming into the week, extra preparation,” Schauffele said. “You just kind of dive a little bit deeper into the preparation, and I feel like the team and I have done a decent job of doing that.”
For second time this year, Snedeker birdies Pebble's 18th from the rocks
It's not a glitch in the matrix. You have seen Brandt Snedeker do this before.
Snedeker on Thursday made his second birdie of 2019 from the rocks along Pebble Beach's iconic 18th hole.
After his drive narrowly avoided the Pacific Ocean, Snedeker played his second shot back over the sea wall and onto the golf course. Following a flagged approach from 147 yards, he was in for birdie.
Weirdly, it's not as impressive as the last time he did it, back in February at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
So if you see Snedeker aiming down the coastline the next three days, don't worry — he knows what he's doing.
Rory Sabbatini was making his way around Pebble Beach in mediocre fashion on Thursday, as he came to the tee of No. 12 at 1 over.
On the 202-yard par 3, Sabbatini watched his shot go up, come down, bounce twice, clank against the flagstick and settle in the hole for an ace. Then he let out a perfect 'OMG-I-just-made-it' shriek.
That would mark the 45th ace in U.S. Open history, the first in five years, since Zach Johnson in the final round at Pinehurst in 2014. Sabbatini’s ace was the eighth in U.S. Opens held at Pebble Beach.
Lucas Bjerregaard was playing unspectacularly through eight holes Thursday at the U.S. Open. However, he was only 3 over as he stepped on the tee at Pebble Beach's par-5 18th hole, his ninth hole of the day.
That's when disaster struck.
Bjerregaard made a sextuple-bogey-11 to plummet down the leaderboard at 9 over.
The 11 still isn't anywhere close to the highest single-hole score in U.S. Open history. That unfortunate feat belongs to Ray Ainsley, who carded a 19 on the par-4 16th hole at Cherry Hills in 1938.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Coming off his lowest round in the U.S. Open in the last three years and within reach of the early lead, Sergio Garcia had plenty of reason to smile after the opening round at Pebble Beach. Instead, the Spaniard’s outlook on things was gloomy at best.
Garcia shot a 2-under 69 in his opener, making an eagle on the par-5 sixth hole in addition to three other birdies. But after the round he remarked that he was surprised by his own performance given how he felt entering the week, which he described as “horrible.”
“The game doesn’t feel good at the moment. It’s as simple as that,” Garcia said. “We go through some of these stretches, and unfortunately I’m picking the wrong part of the year to go through one of those.”
Garcia is down to 30th in the latest world rankings, having missed the cut in each of his last two starts. But he does have four top-10 finishes to his credit since February, including a pair of WGC events. Still, Garcia’s outlook was nothing short of dour after closing out a round that left him within three shots of the first-round lead.
“I mean, I don’t think I have much of a chance of winning this week the way I’m feeling,” he said. “But, you know, the planets have aligned before (at the 2017 Masters). If they do again and it helps me, then it’s a good thing.”
Garcia entered this week on a string of seven straight missed cuts in majors, a drought that dates back to the 2017 PGA at Quail Hollow and includes an early exit last month at Bethpage after rounds of 74-71. While he appears in position to stick around for the weekend at Pebble, Garcia wasn’t exactly brimming with optimism after a round where he mixed good shots with ones where he “looked like a 25-handicapper.”
“The thing is, when you’re feeling better, when you’re feeling well, your misses are a lot more under control,” Garcia said. “And it feels like when I’m missing at the moment, I’m not very much under control.”
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