Seeds Culled In Galway

On a day of unprecedented shocks in the Irish city of Galway, all four seeds crashed out of the Paddy Whack West of Ireland Open in the first round of the PSA World Tour Challenger 10 squash event in its seventh successive year at the Galway Lawn Tennis Club.

Australia's Steven Finitsis claimed the biggest scalp in an 11-6, 11-5, 11-8 defeat of Henrik Mustonen, the top seed from Finland.

"Steve arrived only just in time to get ready for his match due to the dreaded Galway traffic," reported tournament spokesman Andre Davies. "But he proceeded to play some stunning attacking squash with nicks left, right and centre to take out top seed Henrik 3/0."

Egyptians triumphed in two of the upsets: Mazen Hesham Ga Sabry celebrated his 19th birthday in appropriate style by dismissing second-seeded South African Shaun le Roux 12-10, 7-11, 13-11, 11-0, while fellow Cairo-based compatriot Mohamed Abouelghar, a qualifier, ousted England's No4 seed Robbie Temple 11-5, 6-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-5 in exactly an hour.

It was an all-English clash which saw the demise of the third seed when Eddie Charlton beat 2011 champion Olivier Pett 11-7, 12-10, 11-5 in just 27 minutes.

"Pleased to win tonight 3/0 against Ollie," tweeted Charlton later. "Strange match - but a wins a win. Lucas Serme tomorrow in the QF, looking forward to it."

Frenchman Serme became the second qualifier to prevail when he upset higher-ranked German Jens Schoor 11-7, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7.

Quarter-final line-up:
Mazen Hesham Ga Sabry (EGY) v Chris Ryder (ENG)
[Q] Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) v Charles Sharpes (ENG)
Eddie Charlton (ENG) v [Q] Lucas Serme (FRA)
Steven Finitsis (AUS) v Raphael Kandra (GER)