English Quartet Blow Into Windy City Open

A quartet of Englishmen secured places in the main draw of the Infor Windy City Open after surviving the qualifying finals of the second PSA Super Series Silver event of the year, in Chicago, USA.

In the longest match of the day, Stacey Ross came from a game down to defeat Egypt's Mohd Ali Anwar Reda 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-10 (3-1) in 85 minutes. Surrey county team-mate Tom Richards also prevailed, beating Canada's Robin Clarke 11-6, 11-9, 11-6.

Essex's Daryl Selby and Oxfordshire's Scott Handley came through after wins over Canada's Patrick Bedore and Frenchman Laurent Elriani, respectively.

Perhaps the most notable match of the day, however, was the all-American clash between Julian Illingworth, the US National champion from Yale, and Christopher Gordon, the highest-ranked USA player from New York. Illingworth prevailed 11-2, 11-4, 11-10 (2-0) in 35 minutes - a win which is likely to reverse their positions in the PSA world list.

Egypt's world number one Amr Shabana leads the high quality field at the PSA event at the city's University Club. The top seed faces Australian Dan Jenson in the first round and is expected to meet another Australian, second seed David Palmer, in the final. Palmer, the defending champion, meets Italy's Davide Bianchetti in the opening round.

All eyes will be on Egypt's Ramy Ashour, the 19-year-old from Cairo who romped to his maiden PSA Super Series title success at the PACE Canadian Classic in Toronto last month. Seeded six, Ashour takes on Swedish qualifier Badr Abdel Aziz in the opening round - and is expected to face France's former world number one Thierry Lincou for a place in the semi-finals.

Qualifying finals:
Stacey Ross (ENG) bt Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY) 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-10 (3-1) (85m)
Badr Abdel Aziz (SWE) bt Michael Joint (GER) 11-3, 11-8, 11-5 (28m)
Tom Richards (ENG) bt Robin Clarke (CAN) 11-6, 11-9, 11-6 (30m)
Amr Mansi (EGY) bt Ryan Donegan (USA) 11-7, 11-7, 11-5 (29m)
Scott Handley (ENG) bt Laurent Elriani (FRA) 11-8, 9-11, 11-10 (2-0), 11-2 (53m)
Mark Krajcsak (HUN) bt Wade Johnstone (AUS) 10-11 (0-2), 11-5, 11-5, 11-6 (48m)
Julian Illingworth (USA) bt Christopher Gordon (USA) 11-2, 11-4, 11-10 (2-0) (35m)
Daryl Selby (ENG) bt Patrick Bedore (CAN) 11-5, 11-4, 11-0 (29m)