Davis & Engelbrecht In Early Liverpool 08 Open Upsets

Zimbabwe's Jesse Engelbrecht and Australian Paul Davis pulled off early upsets on the first day of qualifying in the Liverpool 08 Open at the Liverpool Cricket Club on Merseyside in England.

The Liverpool 08 Open, at St George's Hall in Liverpool from 3-7 May, is the international squash circuit's richest ranking event in England for five years. The PSA Super Series championship, boasting a $77,500 prize fund, has attracted a star-studded field for the first ever major event on Merseyside to be played on a state-of-the-art all-glass court.

A full field of 32 players from 12 countries competed in today's first qualifying round, with Surrey-based Engelbrecht causing the first upset when he defeated India's Leeds-based Saurav Ghosal, ranked 13 places higher in the world rankings, 11-7, 11-8, 11-8 in 31 minutes. The Zimbabwean will now face Ireland's Liam Kenny for a place in the main draw.

More than 40 ranking positions separated Davis and Pakistan's Arshad Iqbal Burki - but the Australian despatched the favoured Burki 11-5, 11-8, 11-5 in 34 minutes to earn an unexpected place in Tuesday's qualifying finals. Davis will meet fellow Australian Dan Jenson, the former world No5 who is also from Adelaide.

After helping organisers to prepare the Liverpool Cricket Club for the start of today's qualifying competition, club champion Andrew Breen might have expected to be rewarded with a good position in the draw, in which he was the recipient of a 'local' wild card place.

But the 22-year-old from Merseyside was drawn to face the most experienced player in the preliminary competition, ex-England international Mark Chaloner, ranked 35 in the world. The 33-year-old from Lincolnshire, a former world No7, made his name over ten years ago when he clinched victory for England for the first time in the 1995 World Championships in the decisive final match against holders Pakistan.

Breen, playing in his first international event, was no match for the experienced Chaloner, who wrapped up an 11-2 11-5 11-4 victory in just 16 minutes to earn a place in Tuesday's qualifying finals.

"It was a great experience," said the local hero afterwards. "But Mark was about ten times faster than anybody I've ever encountered before," added Breen, before heading over to Liverpool's St George's Hall to help with the final stages of the construction of the state-of-the-art all-glass court which will stage the main draw action of the PSA Super Series event from Wednesday through to the final on Sunday.

Two-times Merseyside county champion Keith Thomason was also in qualifying action at the Liverpool Cricket Club. The 23-year-old from New Brighton who is a website developer at Liverpool University faced recently-crowned European Junior Champion Simon Rosner, the 18-year-old world No72 who made his senior debut for Germany in last week's European Team Championships.

Despite strong local support from the packed club crowd, Thomason went down 11-7, 11-8, 11-8 to the German teenager who is competing in his first Tour event in the UK.

Mark Chaloner leads a strong English contingent through to the qualifying finals, including Lee Drew, from Colchester in Essex; Ben Garner and Stacey Ross, both from Surrey; Scott Handley from Oxfordshire; Daryl Selby, from Witham in Essex; and Gloucestershire's Alister Walker, from Leeds.

1st qualifying round:
Mark Chaloner (ENG) bt Andrew Breen (ENG) 11-2, 11-5, 11-4 (16m)
Lee Drew (ENG) bt Kris Meadows (ENG) 11-3, 11-6, 11-7 (20m)
Jean-Michel Arcucci (FRA) bt Chris Simpson (ENG) 2-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-5 (66m)
Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) bt Rob Sutherland (WAL) 11-10 (3-1), 10-11 (0-2), 11-7, 11-2 (42m)
Ben Garner (ENG) bt Stephen Siviter (ENG) 11-9, 11-7, 11-10 (5-3) (29m)
Stacey Ross (ENG) bt Jonathan Harford (ENG) 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 (45m)
Liam Kenny (IRL) bt Jethro Binns (WAL) 11-4, 11-9, 11-9 (36m)
Jesse Engelbrecht (ZIM) bt Saurav Ghosal (IND) 11-7, 11-8, 11-8 (31m)
Scott Handley (ENG) bt Shaun le Roux (ENG) 7-11, 11-5, 11-5, 3-11, 11-8 (42m)
Alister Walker (ENG) bt Julien Balbo (FRA) 11-8, 11-6, 11-6 (34m)
Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK) bt Ryan Thompson (NAM) 11-5, 11-7, 11-8 (31m)
Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) bt Robbie Temple (ENG) 11-9, 11-4, 11-6 (24m)
Simon Rosner (GER) bt Keith Thomason (ENG) 11-7, 11-8, 11-8 (19m)
Daryl Selby (ENG) bt Darren Lewis (ENG) 11-4, 11-3, 11-2 (29m)
Paul Davis (AUS) bt Arshad Iqbal Burki (PAK) 11-5, 11-8, 11-5 (34m)
Dan Jenson (AUS) bt Tom Richards (ENG) 11-9, 11-2, 11-9 (34m)