Seeds Suffer In Grande Prairie

Such was the demise of fancied players in the first round of the Grande Prairie Open that local favourite Matthew Giuffre will only meet a seed if he makes the final of the new PSA Tour event in Grande Prairie in the Canadian province of Alberta.

Top seed Giuffre beat compatriot Michal Reid 11-10 (2-0), 11-4, 11-5 and will now face Darren Lewis, the unseeded Englishman who knocked out Jan Koukal, the No6 seed from the Czech Republic, 11-6, 11-8, 11-6.

Frenchman Laurent Elriani was the biggest casualty. The third seed went down 11-7, 11-10 (3-1), 11-3 in 65 minutes to Ryan Cuskelly.

The unseeded Australian will now take on another non-seed, New Zealander Martin Knight who prevailed 6-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7 over USA's fifth seed Christopher Gordon in a 105-minute marathon.

1st round:
[1] Matthew Giuffre (CAN) bt Michal Reid (CAN) 11-10 (2-0), 11-4, 11-5 (32m)
Darren Lewis (ENG) bt [6] Jan Koukal (CZE) 11-6, 11-8, 11-6 (43m)
Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) bt [3] Laurent Elriani (FRA) 11-7, 11-10 (3-1), 11-3 (65m)
Martin Knight (NZL) bt [5] Christopher Gordon (USA) 6-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7 (105m)
Arthur Gaskin (IRL) bt [7] Robin Clarke (CAN) 11-7, 11-6, 11-3 (40m)
[4] Steve Finitsis (AUS) bt Ryan Donegan (USA) 11-4, 11-8, 11-8 (34m)
[8] David Phillips (CAN) bt Patrick Bedore (CAN) 11-7, 11-0, 11-7 (30m)
[2] Bradley Ball (ENG) bt Ryan Thompson (NAM) 11-5, 11-5, 11-1 (28m)