Tuominen Tested By Egyptian Teenager

Finland's Olli Tuominen survived his first round match in the Rotary Heliopolis Open - but the fourth seed was fully tested by Egyptian teenager Ramy Ashour, the world junior champion in his home town of Cairo.

Ashour, 17, clinched the first game in a tie-break, then forced two more games into tense tie-breaks before eventually bowing out bravely 10-11 (1-3), 11-10 (4-2), 11-9, 11-10 (4-2) to the fighting Finn.

Tuominen, the 26-year-old world No17 from Helsinki, has a surprise opponent in the next round: Englishman Adrian Grant arrived in Cairo fresh from his victory in last month's CAS International in Pakistan - success which catapulted the 24-year-old Londoner five places to No14 in the world rankings at the beginning of this month.

But on the Egyptian courts, left-hander Grant was no match for compatriot Jonathan Kemp, a qualifier who took just 30 minutes to stun his fifth-seeded countryman 11-5 11-8 11-6.

The other two first round matches on the opening day of this $40,000 PSA Tour event saw straightforward straight games victories for local players. Top seed Amr Shabana, the Cairo-based former world champion, beat compatriot Hisham Mohd Ashour, a qualifier, 11-8 11-5 11-10 in 44 minutes.

His opponent in the quarter-finals will be Wael El Hindi after the eighth seed defeated Frenchman Renan Lavigne 11-4 11-6 11-7.

1st round:
[1] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [Q] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) 11-8, 11-5, 11-10 (2-0) (44m)
[8] Wael El Hindi (EGY) bt Renan Lavigne (FRA) 11-4, 11-6, 11-7
[4] Olli Tuominen (FIN) bt Ramy Ashour (EGY) 10-11 (1-3), 11-10 (4-2), 11-9, 11-10 (4-2)
[Q] Jonathan Kemp (ENG) bt [5] Adrian Grant (ENG) 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 (30m)