El Halaby Dashes US Hopes In Oregon

Egyptian Yasser El Halaby dashed hopes of further US interest in the Evergreen Oregon Open when he beat Christopher Gordon in the qualifying finals of the 3-star PSA Tour event at Multomah Athletic Club in Portland in the US state of Oregon.

Halaby, 22, from Cairo, despatched the second-highest-ranked American in the PSA world rankings 11-7, 11-6, 11-3 in 36 minutes - and is drawn to meet Canadian Shahier Razik, the sixth seed, in the first round.

Canadian David Phillips received the toughest draw when he survived the qualifiers after beating Australian Wade Johnstone 11-1, 11-5, 11-4. The 26-year-old from Montreal will take on top seed Mohd Azlan Iskandar, the world No17 from Malaysia.

Qualifying finals:
Bernardo Samper (COL) bt Paul Davis (AUS) 11-10 (2-0), 11-6, 11-9 (42m)
Jan Koukal (CZE) bt Tony James (AUS) 11-7, 11-7, 11-8 (51m)
David Phillips (CAN) bt Wade Johnstone (AUS) 11-1, 11-5, 11-4 (28m)
Yasser El Halaby (EGY) bt Christopher Gordon (USA) 11-7, 11-6, 11-3 (36m)