Ghosal & Reda Produce Upsets In Cairo

Egypt's Mohd Ali Anwar Reda and Indian number one Saurav Ghosal produced significant upsets on the opening day of main draw action in the $150,000 Sky Open to claim unexpected places in the last 16 of the third - and biggest so far this year - PSA Super Series 2010 squash event at the Sky Petrosport Club in Cairo.

Reda, the 21-year-old world No28 from Cairo, battled for 97 minutes to overcome England's No9 seed Daryl Selby, ranked nine in the world, 5-11, 11-7, 11-2, 9-11, 11-4.

It was a disappointing end to the first half of the year for England international Selby who has enjoyed considerable success on the PSA Tour since starting last year outside the world top30.

Home town hero Reda, who joins four fellow Cairo-based compatriots in the second round, will now take on England's James Willstrop for a place in the quarter-finals.

Fifth seed Willstrop, winner of the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York, the first PSA Super Series event of the year, despatched unseeded Egyptian Hisham Mohd Ashour 12-10, 12-10, 11-3 in 34 minutes.

Saurav Ghosal went into match against 16th seed Mohd Azlan Iskandar following four successive Tour defeats by the Malaysian. But the rising star from Chennai, who has become India's highest-ranked player of all-time, made his breakthrough against Iskandar in last month's Asian Team Championships - beating the world No18 for the first time in his career.

And 23-year-old Ghosal carried this new-found confidence into his Cairo encounter, winning 11-9, 4-11, 11-8, 11-2 in 52 minutes to achieve his first success in a Super Series event this year.

Ghosal goes on to tackle the event's biggest name, top seed Ramy Ashour - the world number one looking to earn his first Super Series crown of the year in his home city.

Ashour faced England's Joey Barrington in the second match of the evening on the all-glass court. After the first game, the two players requested that the match be moved to a glass-backed court.

"The court floor was very slippery despite a day of cleaning," explained tournament director Robert Edwards. "The first match between Amr Shabana and Karim Samy saw them slipping, but they decided to finish their match.

"The floor was cleaned again at the end of their match, but we agreed that if the next two players complained about the floor and requested a move, we would move them to the glass backs to finish. They did request a move during the first game and were promptly moved to the other court."

Ashour continued his domination of the match on the new court and swiftly beat Barrington 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 to take up his second round place.

2nd round line-up:
[1] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v Saurav Ghosal (IND)
[5] James Willstrop (ENG) v Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY)
[4] Karim Darwish (EGY) v [10] David Palmer (AUS)
[6] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [15] Cameron Pilley (AUS)
[7] Thierry Lincou (FRA) v [14] Alister Walker (ENG)
[3] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [12] Wael El Hindi (EGY)
[8] Peter Barker (ENG) v [13] Adrian Grant (ENG)
[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) v [11] Laurens Jan Anjema (NED)