Willstrop Leads English Quartet Into Round Two At St George's

Former world No.1 James Willstrop led a quartet of Englishmen into the second round of the Channel VAS Championships at St George's Hill in Weybridge after beating Egypt's Omar Abdel Meguid on day one of the PSA World Tour Gold event.

Willstrop, the 35-year-old from Harrogate who is making his return to St George's Hill Lawn Tennis Club after missing out last year, was too clinical for his opponent today as he hit consistent length and dropped well to record the 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 victory.

"He fires the ball in, takes it short well and he has presence around the middle, which I thought could get us both into a bit of trouble," said the world No.18.

"But we had a bit of a chat in the first game and everything was perfect after that. We sorted it out and played pretty clean from that point onwards.

"He's not easy to play, so I had to be ready and play well. Those shots ... I didn't see a thing there, I'm not sure what was going on, so I'll be getting my notebook out later to see if I can get any tips."

Willstrop will clash with New Zealand's world No.8 Paul Coll in the next round. It will be their first meeting since the Yorkshireman overcame the Kiwi in the men's Commonwealth Games singles final on the Gold Coast in April.

Declan James, the second-highest ranked English male, will join his compatriot in the last 16 after he got the better of compatriot Adrian Waller by a 3/2 margin after a 73-minute battle.

James beat Waller in a 101-minute epic earlier in the month at the US Open and he once again prevailed in an attritional affair, winning 9-11, 15-13, 11-8, 7-11, 11-5 to ensure that he will play last year's runner-up Ali Farag in round two.

"I can feel the pressure, I wanted to do well so badly," said world No.20 James.

"[Because of] the rise in the ranking, the fact I won my biggest tournament [the Open International de Nantes in September], plus the U.S. [Open] match we just played was tense and controversial at times. We are from the same country, we are team mates, and we both wanted to win very badly. "

World No.21 Daryl Selby and home favourite Tom Richards were the other Englishmen to claim wins on the opening day, with Selby defeating close friend Ben Coleman, while Richards overcame Spain's former world No.5 Borja Golan.

The longest match of the day saw French duo Mathieu Castagnet and Lucas Serme play out a brutal 103-minute encounter. Castagnet came into the match boasting a five-match unbeaten run against Serme, but looked spent after squandering four match balls in the fourth to send the match into a decider.

But a herculean effort from the world No.26 saw Castagnet edge out his fellow Frenchman to record an 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 12-14, 11-9 victory which will see him play Indian No.1 Saurav Ghosal in the next round.

"It was amazing to play over an hour and a half against Lucas," Castagnet said.

"He's such a great guy with a really nice attitude on court and he's really fair. I would like to see more matches like that. This sport is such a difficult game and we showed you today how hard it is to be on the court. Even if I lost today against Lucas it wouldn't matter, the most important thing is it was such a great match."

Meanwhile, Australia's Cameron Pilley claimed his first win on the PSA Tour since undergoing ankle surgery after he downed England's Chris Simpson in straight games to set up a round two fixture with 2016 runner-up Tarek Momen.

"I'm very happy with my performance," Pilley said.

"I had my ankle surgery at the end of June and although it's ahead of schedule, I'm so impatient and I just want to be back to full fitness as soon as I can. There's been zero off-season training, so my focus has been on improving my shot selection and improving the quality of my shots. That's been my whole focus for the last month."

Elsewhere, tournament wildcard Charlie Lee saw his tournament come to an end at the hands of Scotland's Greg Lobban, while Welshman Joel Makin scored an upset win over world No.19 Raphael Kandra.