Assured Ashour Upsets Seed In PSA Debut

Egypt's Ramy Ashour, who stunned the squash world in August when he became the youngest ever World Junior Champion (pictured) at the age of 16, made a highly successful PSA Tour debut in the Fischer Athens Open when he upset third-seeded Dane Mikkel Korsbjerg in straight games in the first round of the event in the Greek capital.

Cairo-based Ashour, now 17, defeated Korsbjerg 11-7 11-6 11-1 in just 32 minutes to earn a place in the quarter-finals against eighth seed Stefan Leifels. The German beat one of two local players in the draw, Greek No1 Fabian Kalaitzis, 11-9 11-7 2-11 11-10 in 43 minutes.

But the match of the day was the 75-minute thriller between David Barnett and Malaysia's fifth seed Timothy Arnold - in which the unseeded Englishman fought back from 1/2 down, then survived a fourth-game tie-break to win 11-10 8-11 5-11 11-10 11-9.

The new PSA event is being played at the brand new Universal Studios Fitness and Squash Club in Vari, south of Athens. "The event organisers have set a new benchmark for satellite tournaments - player ID passes with photos, free Isotonic drinks service, free internet access in the in-house internet café, and a live video signal from the centre court to all plasma TV screens in the whole club have been just some topics - and should be the base for making this event grow in the next years," said Wolfgang Denk, of McWIL Consulting.

1st round:
[1] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) bt Shahid Khan (ENG) 11-4, 11-10 (3-1), 11-3 (35m)
David Barnett (ENG) bt [5] Timothy Arnold (MAS) 11-10 (2-0), 8-11, 5-11, 11-10 (2-0), 11-9 (75m)
[4] Andrew Whipp (ENG) bt Amr Ramzy Swelim (EGY) 11-5, 11-9, 7-11, 11-10 (2-0) (38m)
[7] Tony James (AUS) bt Alexandre Muller (FRA) 5-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9, 11-10 (2-0) (55m)
[8] Stefan Leifels (GER) bt Fabian Kalaitzis (GRE) 11-9, 11-7, 2-11, 11-10 (2-0) (43m)
Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt [3] Mikkel Korsbjerg (DEN) 11-7, 11-6, 11-1 (32m)
[6] Julien Balbo (FRA) bt Friedrich Scheel (GER) 11-3, 11-4, 11-4 (30m)
[2] Christian Drakenberg (SWE) bt Petros Tzamaloukas (GRE) 11-5, 11-0, 11-5 (25m)