Parke Races To First Round Victory In Croatia

The organisers of the first PSA Tour event ever to be held in Croatia pulled out all the stops when top seed Simon Parke missed his flight from London after traffic hold-ups delayed his arrival at Heathrow airport.

Keen to keep happy the numerous fans eager to see the former world No3 - as well as sponsors and the waiting TV and press journalists - the Croatian Open promoters rescheduled the favourite's game and invested in a business class Heathrow-Zagreb plane ticket.

Parke arrived on schedule ("it was Lufthansa," pointed out the promoters) and was rushed through customs. Thanks to the fast Mercedes cars, Parke was in the club 35 minutes after touching down!

"The airport is 35 km outside Zagreb, so we may need to make a fund-raising exhibition for the speeding tickets," joked event organiser Vedran Rezic.

The 33-year-old Yorkshireman - who won the Colets Open in Surrey on Sunday, then led Nottingham in the final English Premier League game of the season on Tuesday - lived up to his top-billing by beating Germany's Friedrich Scheel 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 in 35 minutes.

Parke will now meet Greece's seventh seed Fabian Kalaitzis who battled for 62 minutes to overcome Dutch qualifier Rene Mijs 11-5, 7-11, 11-10 (2-0), 9-11, 11-2.

Despite massive support from the crowd, local hero Domagoj Spoljar was unable to make a significant impression against Austrian number one Andreas Fuchs, going down 11-9, 11-4, 11-2 to the fifth seed.

Czech number one Jan Koukal liked the Zagreb courts so much that he decided to play 85 minutes to overcome English qualifier Jonathan Harford. After one rally, at game ball in the second game, which was eight minutes long, Koukal eventually prevailed 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-7.

1st round:
[1] Simon Parke (ENG) bt Friedrich Scheel (GER) 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 (35m)
[7] Fabian Kalaitzis (GRE) bt [Q] Rene Mijs (NED) 11-5, 7-11, 11-10 (2-0), 9-11, 11-2 (62m)
[3] Jan Koukal (CZE) bt [Q] Jonathan Harford (ENG) 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-7 (85m)
[5] Andreas Fuchs (AUT) bt Domagoj Spoljar (CRO) 11-9, 11-4, 11-2 (35m)
[6] Rob Sutherland (WAL) bt [Q] Klemen Gutman (SLO) 11-5, 7-11, 11-4, 11-4 (36m)
[4] Ian Power (CAN) bt Petros Tzamaloukas (GRE) 11-3, 11-6, 11-3 (29m)
[8] Fabien Verseille (FRA) bt Andre Holderegger (SUI) 4-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-9 (55m)
[2] Mark Krajcsak (HUN) bt [Q] Philip Nightingale (ENG) 11-4, 11-10 (5-3), 11-5 (43m)