Anjema Topples Razik In Marathon Heliopolis Upset

Laurens Jan Anjema secured his best PSA Tour win of the year when he upset Canada's sixth seed Shahier Razik in the opening round of the Rotary Heliopolis Open at the National Stadium in Nasr City in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

It was a marathon battle in which leads by the Dutchman were twice pegged back by the Cairo-born Canadian national champion who won the Houston Open in the USA last month. But, after 93 minutes - the longest match on the opening day - unseeded Anjema emerged triumphant in a 11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-11 (0-2), 11-9 scoreline.

Anjema's success - remarkably, the 23-year-old from The Hague's maiden first round win on the PSA Tour this year - takes him through to a quarter-final clash with Karim Darwish, the top-seeded Egyptian who cruised to an 11-5, 11-2, 11-8 win over Italian Davide Bianchetti in just 33 minutes.

The quickest victory of the day was recorded by Egypt's newly-crowned world junior champion Ramy Ashour, the fourth seed who beat fellow Egyptian junior international Mohd Ali Anwar Reda 11-4, 11-4, 11-3 in 25 minutes.

The teenager's next battle will be against England's sole representative in the $40,000 PSA Tour event's field Peter Barker - the No7 seed who dismissed Swedish qualifier Badr Abdel Aziz 11-6, 11-8, 11-3.

1st round:
[1] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt Davide Bianchetti (ITA) 11-5, 11-2, 11-8 (33m)
Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) bt [6] Shahier Razik (CAN) 11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-10 (2-0) (93m)
[3] Mohammed Abbas (EGY) bt [Q] Yasser El Halaby (EGY) 11-6, 11-4, 11-8 (34m)
[8] Borja Golan (ESP) bt Renan Lavigne (FRA) 11-8, 11-8, 10-11 (0-2), 11-5 (62m)
[7] Peter Barker (ENG) bt [Q] Badr Abdel Aziz (SWE) 11-6, 11-8, 11-3 (37m)
[4] Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY) 11-4, 11-4, 11-3 (25m)
[5] Wael El Hindi (EGY) bt [Q] Tarek Momen (EGY) 11-4, 3-11, 11-7, 11-6 (35m)
[2] Olli Tuominen (FIN) bt [Q] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 11-10 (2-0) (71m)