Beachill Through To Semis As Willstrop Misses Out

England's Lee Beachill booked himself a place in the last four of the Brit Insurance Super Series Finals at the Broadgate Arena in London despite a 3/2 loss to Australia's world No3 David Palmer in their final Harrow Group qualifying match.

The Yorkshireman needed to take just one game from his opponent to qualify for the knock-out stages and achieved that in a little over six-minutes, taking the first game. For Palmer, however, it was a must-win game and he fought back strongly, taking the second, fourth and fifth games to record a 64-minute 5-11 11-5 8-11 11-3 11-4 victory and progress to the last four as Harrow Group winner.

"I knew I just needed to win a game, so mentally it's a fine balance," said Beachill, the world No2, who finished as group runner-up. "David had to win and was prepared to go that bit further."

Ironically the result put paid to the title ambitions of Beachill's friend and club colleague James Willstrop, for whom a Beachill victory was the only chance of survival in a Group in which three players finished with two victories.

Beachill will face defending champion Thierry Lincou in Thursday's second semi-final after the Frenchman put in another stunning performance to edge out Australia's Anthony Ricketts, a replacement for Peter Nicol, who was forced to retire from the event after sustaining a deep cut to the little finger of his left hand (his racket hand) in his match the previous evening.

The remarkable Lincou saved three match balls in a fourth game tiebreak en-route to a breathtaking 11-8 8-11 10-11 11-10 11-5 victory over Ricketts in 72 minutes.

"That was tough," said Lincou. "I can't even remember the score, but I know from my legs that it was long and tough. Tomorrow's going to be really hard. I had three tough matches in the group but I hope to recover well because I will need my full potential tomorrow."

Lincou takes top spot in the Fleet Group after finishing the qualifying stages as the only unbeaten player in the tournament.

Earlier in the evening, Canada's Jonathon Power recorded a straightforward 3/0 victory over the 2003 World Champion Amr Shabana to book his semi-final berth as the Fleet Group runner-up.

Power cruised to victory in just 27 minutes, conceding only 12 points to the Egyptian No7 seed. The only blemish on an otherwise perfect evening for the No8 seed was when he turned on his right ankle on the final point of the match to leave the court in some discomfort.

"It was really bizarre," said Power. "It was the last point, I had the match well in hand at 2-nil, 10-4, and I rolled my ankle. It's a little swollen but hopefully I'll be better for the semis tomorrow so I'm happy to have qualified."

Shabana, who ended his campaign without a win, pointed the finger at the English conditions: "I trained the last two weeks in Cairo and it was really hot, about 37 degrees Celsius, and it was hot when I came here last year so I thought I was going to come here and play comfortably. But it's been a bit cold for me. I tried my best yesterday and the day before but today he was just fantastic, I couldn't do much about it," he said.

In the final match of the evening, with the semi-final line-up already decided, England's James Willstrop ended an impressive debut appearance at the event with a 3/1 victory over compatriot Nick Matthew. Willstrop completed his 10-11 11-8 11-8 11-10 victory in 47 minutes to take third place in the Harrow Group.

3rd qualifying round:

Fleet group:
[8] Jonathon Power (CAN) bt [7] Amr Shabana (EGY) 11-4, 11-4, 11-4 (27m)
[1] Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt Anthony Ricketts (AUS) 11-8, 8-11, 10-11 (2-4), 11-10 (5-3), 11-5 (72m)

Harrow group:
[2] David Palmer (AUS) bt [3] Lee Beachill (ENG) 5-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-3, 11-4 (64m)
[5] James Willstrop (ENG) bt [6] Nick Matthew (ENG) 10-11 (0-2), 11-8, 11-8, 11-10 (2-0) (47m)