Round One : Bryant advances to Round Two
Rising England star Jonah Bryant pulled off the first shock of the Ipswich Sports Club PSA 12k Challenger Cup when he took out seeded Joeri Hapers from Belgium inside 28 minutes.
Bryant, 18, from Shorham on Sea already has three PSA Challenge Tour titles to his name as he winds down his junior career and heads into the professional world. His win over Hapers continued the form he showed last week landing the English Junior U-19 title giving the sell-out Ipswich crowd a taster of what the future might hold for English squash.
The Ipswich audience enjoyed a feast of quality matches with the match-up with Egypt’s Moustafa Elsirty and Sam Buckley from Ireland being the most feisty. Elsirty came through in three high-octane games that left the ref as worn out as the players having to deal with a stream of contested and heated points.
Our three club players, Aaron Allpress, Stan Sykes and Mikey Tallentire, gave their opponents plenty to think about but were all ultimately edged out. Mikey’s eccentric shot on match-ball would have brought the house down, sadly it narrowly failed to hit the spot.
The women’s event witnessed wildcard Sofia Pita giving 9/16 seed Lea Barbeau a run for her money while Lowri Roberts came through another 3-2 marathon match to book a second-round match-up with thrird seed Asia Harris.
Egyptians knocked out two English Amelies (Brooke and Haworth). Haworth, who landed the U19 English title at the weekend fell to Nour Haikal while Brooke was denied by Ingy Hammouda.
The women’s draw is packed with international talent with England’s Katie Malliff and Millie Tomlinson installed as the one and two seeds. They begin their challenge this evening.
There’s still time to book your tickets.
Click here or we can take payment in the club. You won’t want to miss out.
